The Scent of Rain
by Saxophones For Eccentricities
Summary: By the will of a couple of spirits, Sumiko finds herself in a new world. Instead of benders they have ninja. Can she complete the task given to her by the spirits that sent her here, or will she be lost to the darkness she is supposed to fight against? AU. OC. Mentions of AtLA. Eventual romance. This is a rewrite.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright everyone, welcome to the rewrite of The Scent of Rain. Some minor changes here in this first chapter. Let me know what you think!**

 **All the usual disclaimers. I don't own Naruto, Avatar the Last Airbender, or anything that seems familiar.**

 **Rated T for now probably going to go up to M sometime in the future.**

* * *

If there's one thing I've become certain of in my short life, it's that war is everywhere. The reasons all the same, resources, power, money. It starts off with small skirmishes, seeing how far one can push the other. Then it culminates to an all out war. Blood flows, homes are destroyed, families ripped apart, and then after one side can fight no more it ends. But the moments of peace are fleeting and the cycle begins again. It's always the same. No matter the time period, no matter the people, no matter the world.

My name is Sumiko and the land which I now call home is not the world I was born in. I was born to a Fire Nation woman named Su and a Northern Water Tribe man named Koda. In my land of birth there is a war going on. The Fire Nation against everyone else. My parents had a passing affair that ended in the creation of my twin brother Lee and I. My mother was the daughter of a noble family loyal to the Fire Lord. She had already been married and passed off my brother and I as her husband Shang's children. We had the typical Fire Nation coloring of pale skin and dark hair so it wasn't a problem. Her husband even said once that our blue eyes were from his side of the family.

When we were about three years old Lee had discovered his firebending abilities. I recall everyone being so proud of him and getting attention that I decided I wanted to be a bender too. Unfortunately, I wasn't a _fire_ bender. I had taken after my biological father and had the ability to bend _water_. Mother was horrified. She said I wasn't safe here anymore. That if Shang or anyone else ever found out they would kill me, so she packed me up and shipped me off to the Northern Water Tribe. I cried and cried as I was separated from everything and everyone my three year old self had ever known.

The journey to the Northern Water Tribe was long and increasingly cold. When I finally arrived I was just about to turn four. I met my father at the port and when he saw my eyes he seemed to relax. I may have been pale skinned like my mother and most others of Fire Nation blood, but I had the eyes of a water tribe member. All members of the Water Tribes, both North and South, had blue eyes that showed their connection to water.

I tried my best to adapt and live a normal life in the Northern Water Tribe, but many of the children there teased me for being different. I may have had the Water Tribe eyes but I still looked different. My features were more angled and sharper than the others. I stuck out like a turtle-duck in a desert. A number of the adults, mainly the elderly with high status shunned me for being born out of wedlock. The Northern Water Tribe was a stickler for traditions and the old ways.

I found comfort though, in the old woman, Karani, who taught in the Healing Huts. She took me under her wing and I immersed myself in my studies of the healing arts through waterbending determined to be the best student she ever had. By the time I was eight years old, Karani said there was nothing else to teach me. That I had mastered the healing arts and was now a healer in my own right.

Things in the village got easier for me after that. They called me a prodigy. Even our chieftain said that no member of the Northern Water Tribe had been declared Healing Master at such a young age. I remember the proud look on my father's face. I remember grinning so hard that my face hurt. I had finally done something right in his eyes. I was finally something more than an unexpected burden from a brief love affair.

I continued to help out old lady Karani at the healing huts when one day after all her other students had left, she presented me with a scroll. It was a _waterbending_ scroll. In my tribe women were forbidden from learning how to use their waterbending abilities for anything other than healing. Karani told me that she believed I had too much potential to waste, and that her son thought the same. Her son, Hanook, was a waterbending master. He told me that we must keep our training an absolute secret. That nobody else could know. If anyone found out there would be terrible consequences for the both of us.

Lessons were slow. We never moved on until a move could be done perfectly on instinct. By the time I was nine, Hanook said I had a thorough mastery of the basics and he was now going to be teaching me some more advanced moves. His training was both physically and mentally taxing, but like with Karani I was determined to be the best student he ever had.

One day, I was running an errand for Karani to retrieve a few vials of water from the sacred pool in the Spirit Oasis. Some of the men had been grievously wounded in a bad patrol accident and it was enough to warrant use of water from the sacred pool. This is the last errand I would run for Karani, and unfortunately I didn't complete her request. As I approached, the two koi fish in the pond, rumored to be the physical manifestations of the moon and ocean spirits, began to circle each other. With each step I took they circled faster and faster. The pool started to glow white and light began to engulf the entire oasis.

"You are needed elsewhere child, the Traverser of Worlds." a voice boomed. "The land to which we send you will be your home. Fight for your new home dear one. Protect it and the people in it. That world, like many, is filled with darkness. You must be a light in the dark. Be the light for he who is shrouded in darkness. Do not let him lose himself. This is your destiny."

"You have our blessings child." another softer and more feminine voice whispered as I felt myself being pulled into the sacred pool.

The cool bite of the water marked the end of my life in my old world and the beginning of my life in my new one.

* * *

Trees. There were trees _everywhere_. I had never seen so many trees in my life! Not even the Fire Nation had this many trees.

"Where am I?" I wondered aloud. I jumped in startled surprise when someone actually responded.

"You are in Konohagakure, little girl. What are you doing here? Are you lost?" I looked up at the tall man who seemed to appear out of nowhere. He was dressed in funny blue clothes and a weird green vest. He also had strange looking silver-white hair. He didn't look to be old enough to have a full head of white hair, so maybe he was blessed by the moon spirit like Princess Yue?

"Why is your hair silver?" I asked the man with a mask.

"Why is _your_ hair silver?" he asked back.

"What?! No it's not! My hair is black!" I quickly reached behind my shoulder and grabbed my braid and gasped when I saw my normally black locks had turned silvery white. What? How did this happen?

" _You have our blessing child."_ the voice rang in my head. Had I really been blessed by the moon and ocean spirits? It certainly seemed that way.

"Oh, well my hair _used_ to be black." I answered.

"Oh? Well I was born with mine. Do you know where your family is little girl?"

I felt my throat tighten and eyes water as I struggled not to sob at his question. My family? They were somewhere far away. Somewhere I don't think I'll ever be able to get back to anymore.

I could feel the man was still waiting for my answer so I quickly looked down and shook my head no. He sighed.

"Well, let's get you to the Hokage's office." he spoke and motioned for me to follow him. I trailed after the mast man and as we were walking I heard a rumble in the sky. I wiped the tears from my face and looked up just in time to see lightning flash across the sky and have a fat drop of cold water fall onto my face. I instinctively raised my arm and used my waterbending to keep me and the silver haired man dry.

He looked up at the sky and then down at me with a curious expression on his face. "How are you doing that?"

"I'm a waterbender." I said with a smile. "Haven't you ever seen a waterbender before?"

"No, I can't say I have." he responded carefully. "By the way, what's your name kid?"

"My name is Sumiko. What's your name mister?"

"Kakashi Hatake." he answered as we approached this huge building with that weird bird snail like squiggle Kakashi had on his headband thing. We entered the building and swiftly made our way to the top.

"Lord Hokage, this child called Sumiko was found at the place of the sighting. There's another thing too. She has this ability to control water and she didn't appear to use chakra while doing it. She called herself a wa-" Kakashi was cut off by the old man in a weird hat sitting at the desk.

"A waterbender, yes." he paused for a moment and I smiled. At least _he_ knew what a waterbender was.

"Kakashi, what will be said is a matter of absolute secrecy." the old man said seriously.

Kakashi nodded. "Of course Lord Hokage." he replied obediently.

As soon as the doors were shut the old man in the funny hat turned to me. "Welcome to Konoha young waterbender." he smiled warmly. I bowed to the elderly man as a sign of respect. Kakashi had called him _Lord_ so he must be someone important. I didn't want to make a bad first impression.

"Thank you, sir. Though, I am not quite sure where I am exactly. I was fetching water from the Spirit Oasis for the senior healing master when I was surrounded by a bright light and heard two voices." I paused and then in a quieter voice continued, "I think they were the ocean and moon spirits who spoke to me." I finished as I absentmindedly messed with the end of my braid of my now white hair.

The old man leaned closer in interest. "What did they tell you young one?" he asked curiously.

"They told me that I was needed here. They told me to fight for my new home and to protect it and the people in it." I spoke and the old Lord smiled once more.

"You are more than welcome here, Sumiko. Do you indeed wish to protect Konoha?" he asked.

I nodded. "If it is what the spirits have asked of me I will gladly do all I can to protect Konoha." I answered confidently.

"Pardon me Lord Hokage, but spirits?" Kakashi Hatake asked skeptically.

"There are a great many things in this universe that most people remain unaware of their entire lives. Of other worlds so similar to ours, yet different. When I first became Hokage I was introduced to some of the wonders of this universe. Some of the spirit beings of this child's world were among them. It was the moon and ocean spirits that young Sumiko speaks of that told me that they would be sending a child of theirs to us in the future. Though I myself have limited knowledge of the workings of the universe, I am wise enough to know that there are things that are beyond our understanding and just simply are. We must always keep our minds open to every possibility." he finished.

The younger man sighed. "Of course, Lord Hokage."

The Hokage man turned back to me. "If you wish to protect this village you must learn to fight. You must become a kunoichi of the Leaf."

I could feel my eyes widen in surprise. "My people have rules forbidding women from learning any sort of combat. Is it not the same here?" I asked nervously. I really hoped it wasn't. If it wasn't, and I really didn't think it was based on what he was saying but I had to be sure, then I could probably get away with already knowing how to use my waterbending abilities for purposes other than healing.

The old man chuckled. "Women here are granted the same rights as men. We have many fine kunoichi that fight alongside our male shinobi."

I grinned. "Then yes! Yes, I will become a kunoichi and do all I can to protect Konoha."

The Lord Hokage nodded and turned to Kakashi. "Kakashi, could you take Sumiko to one of the training grounds for an assessment of her abilities?"

"Right away, Lord Hokage." he bowed and we made our exit.

On the way down to the building's lobby Kakashi turned to me and asked, "Are you okay to do this in the rain?"

I smiled and nodded enthusiastically. "Of course! Rain means water. This is great!"

* * *

We arrived at a large clearing with trees on the borders leading into the surrounding forests. The only thing that really made it stand out as a training ground to me where the number of wooden posts scattered about and a few gouges in the ground that definitely weren't made through natural causes.

"Alright now Sumiko, as a ninja you will need to be prepared to fight an enemy knowing that sometimes you may have to kill them." Kakashi spoke sternly.

I gulped and nodded slowly. "I understand what may be necessary." Hanook had told me stories of being faced with the scenario many times throughout his time on the battlefield. He explained to me that death is sometimes necessary to protect yourself and others. That it could mean the difference between life and death for you or your loved ones if you hesitate in doing what is necessary.

Kakashi's one visible eye scrunched up like he was smiling behind his dark blue mask. "Very well, show me what you can do."

I immediately molded the falling drops of water around me to form a whip-like sort of weapon. With a wave of my arm I sent the water whip straight towards Kakashi's chest but he disappeared into a puff of smoke and evaded the attack. My eyes widened and I let out a shaky breath. _How_? Just how was this possible? What kind of place did I get sent to where people can make themselves disappear? I need to change my strategy, the water whip wasn't going to work in this situation.

I used my waterbending to gather more water around me to create my octopus form. The large tentacles of water surrounded me in a defensive ring ready to lash out at a target when needed. The octopus form had been one of my favorite moves to learn. I liked how it provided both a good defense and offense.

I shut my eyes and focused on listening to what was going on around me. I could hear something that sounded like a metallic zing coming from behind and in retaliation I raised one of the water tentacles behind me to block whatever projectile was heading my way.

"Good job, but can you block this?" Kakashi said.

My eyes snapped open at his words and I cautiously watched as he made some strange symbols with his hands and then all of a sudden a large blob of water was barreling toward me. I instinctively crossed my hands over my head in an x shape and squeezed my hands into fists making my octopus form transform into a dome of ice. I waited until I couldn't feel anything hit against the dome and hesitantly dropped it. I was immediately faced with another blob of water and since I had already dropped my defense I put all my might into forcing the water blob to split and fall to the ground leaving a harmless puddle of water. I felt the instant loss of a large amount of energy and wobbled before falling onto the now muddy ground.

"Interesting. It seems your abilities can pull apart water ninjutsu. I think we're done here." Kakashi said. I tried to get up but only managed to slip further into the mud. I sighed and bowed my head in apology.

"I apologize for my lack of combat skills Kakashi Hatake, but I promise you that I am not completely useless. Right now I am much better suited as a healer than a fighter." I spoke meekly with my eyes to the ground.

I felt a hand on the top of my head. I looked up to see the face of the silver haired man. "You did plenty Sumiko. You are far from useless." he assured me. "How old are you?" he asked me.

"I am nine years old." I answered shyly.

"You did exceptionally well for a nine year old with little to no combat experience Sumiko. Now, let's get back to the Hokage to figure out where you'll be staying."

* * *

 **I already have several other chapters completely rewritten, so those chapters should be coming soon too. Let me know what you think! Thanks for reading.**

 **-S.F.E.**


	2. Chapter 2

**I was going to wait another couple of days before releasing another chapter, but then I figured that I have it ready to go so I might as well post it. Here's the rewritten Chapter 2 of The Scent of Rain.**

 **All the usual disclaimers. I don't own Naruto, AtLA, or anything that may seem familiar.**

* * *

"Wake up Sumiko. If you don't leave now you'll be late for class."

I rolled out of bed, stood up, and faced the person talking to me. "Yeah, right, like _you're_ never late for anything Kakashi-nii." I said and rolled my eyes. I yawned and headed to the bathroom.

Kakashi had been my caretaker soon after I arrived in Konoha a little over three years ago. He and a few others helped me catch up on the history and the culture of this world. With the extra help I was able to become the top kunoichi in my class. My practical strengths lay in weapon use and surprisingly ninjutsu. I was the top of my class in these two subjects. Though, the Academy taught ninjutsu were are relatively simple and not difficult at all. I think the reason I was at the top in ninjutsu had more to do with chakra control and the fact that medical ninjutsu came to me as easily as breathing.

I was second in academics to a girl named Sakura Haruno. She was a pretty girl with bright pink hair who liked to shout just a little too much. I tried my best to beat her scores but she must have an eidetic memory or something because she always had perfect scores. I couldn't compete with her there.

In taijutsu I was average, hanging out somewhere in the middle of the ranks. I am still always aiming to improve, but I was happy with this considering when I first started at the Academy I was so far behind physically. Now, I can comfortably keep up with the drills and exercises with the rest of them. It's only thanks to my youthful and motivating teacher that I am where I am today in regards to taijutsu.

My greatest weakness was genjutsu. No matter how many times people tried to explain it to me, I just couldn't pick it up. I wasn't able to create a half decent genjutsu and it took me way too long to realize that I was actually in a genjutsu.

Anyhow, today is graduation day at the Academy. I am so looking forward to hopefully passing and being able to use my waterbending more openly again. I had gone three years in this world without anyone other than Kakashi and the Hokage knowing that I was a waterbender. Lord Hokage had told me that I could not use my techniques at the Academy. That I would be subject to the same rules as those students who had kekkei genkai or other special family techniques. I was okay with this since Kakashi trained with me privately so my waterbending didn't get too rusty. I was even more proud of my high spot in the Academy standings knowing that I managed it without the use of my waterbending, and I think Kakashi was proud of me too.

I quickly pulled my long white hair into a braid and slipped on my usual outfit of a pale yellow three-quarter sleeve shirt, mesh capri leggings, a black skirt, and genin standard blue sandals. As soon as my shoes were on I rushed out the front door heading to the Academy to hopefully become an official kunoichi of Konoha.

* * *

I took my seat in the last row near the large windows where two friends of mine, Choji Akimichi and Shikamaru Nara were already seated.

"Hey Choji, Shikamaru." I greeted.

"You totally missed it, Sumiko. Gin backed into Naruto while he was having another stand off with Sasuke and they kissed!" Choji managed through his laughter.

"Wait, what?" I asked incredulously while my face scrunched up in confusion. I looked over to the boys Choji had mentioned to see Naruto on the floor looking more than a little beat up and Sasuke was in his chair glaring down at him. I couldn't help but laugh.

"I knew there had to be some reason Uchiha never responded to any of his _admirers'_ advances." I joked. Choji began to laugh with me and Shikamaru snickered.

The chaos died down as Iruka-sensei entered the room and called the class to order. "Good morning everyone! Today is the final part of your graduation exam. You have already completed your written and taijutsu exams. For this part of the exam you will be be called into the next room one by one. You will be notified if you have passed or failed with the completion of today's exam. After receiving your results you may leave. Good luck to you all, and now let's get started! Shino Aburame you're up first." Iruka-sensei announced.

One by one I watched as students were called into the room. They didn't come back into the holding room but I could see them leave the Academy through my place by the window. While many left looking disappointed there were some like Shino, Choji, and others that came out with their brand new headbands somewhere on their persons, signifying they were now official shinobi of the Village Hidden in the Leaves. Soon enough my name was called. "Sumiko Hatake."

The Hokage had arranged, with Kakashi's permission of course, for me to live in this village as a long lost cousin of Kakashi's. I took his family name, since where I come from family names weren't a thing, and he became my legal guardian. We did look alike with the silvery white hair thing and a few other facial features were similar enough that we were able to pass as relatives.

I entered the room and saw Iruka-sensei along with Mizuki-sensei sitting at a desk with two rows of unclaimed Konoha headbands sitting there tauntingly. I wanted one. I wanted one badly.

"Hello Sumiko! Now for the last part of your exam all I need you to do is produce three clones of yourself." Iruka-sensei said happily. When not scolding students for misbehaving, Iruka-sensei was a happy sort of guy and he was a good teacher. I nodded and quickly made the appropriate hand signs for bunshin and three identical replications of myself appeared to my left.

"Excellent! You really have come a far way in such a short time Sumiko." Iruka-sensei praised.

"Yes, yes, you've done well but I do suppose that's not surprising for a Hatake, hm?" Mizuki-sensei commented.

Iruka-sensei chuckled. "I do suppose that's true. Congratulations, Sumiko you pass!" he said while handing me an official Konohagakure headband.

I bowed. "Thank you, Iruka-sensei!" I said with a smile and ran out of the building. Awesome! I'm a ninja now, heck yeah!

In my excitement I decided that I was going to stop for some dango. I deserved the treat. I _had_ just graduated from the Academy after all. After buying some of the sweet and delicious treat I made my way back home.

"Kakashi! Kakashi! I passed! I'm a kunoichi now!" I shouted excitedly as I opened the door to the apartment. I saw Kakashi's head pop up from the couch. He jumped up and I launched myself at him. I squeezed him in a tight hug. "I actually did it! I passed!"

"Good job, kiddo. You're going to make one hell of a kunoichi." my guardian who I considered a brother praised as he ruffled my hair. Without warning, the front door burst open and Gai-sensei burst through yelling, "Dynamic entry!"

I released Kakashi to glance from the green-clad jonin to Kakashi. He had that somewhat exasperated look on his face that he got whenever Gai did something weird. "Congratulations, Sumiko-chan! I have received news that you are now a kunoichi of the Leaf Village!" Gai exclaimed. Maito Gai was, to say the very least, a very eccentric character. He was loud and tended to shout a lot of what he was saying, but that was what made Gai-sensei, Gai-sensei.

I giggled a bit before answering Gai-sensei. "Yes, sure did. Thank you Gai-sensei, I officially graduated about," I glanced at the clock on the wall, "twenty minutes ago."

"Ha ha! That is wonderful! How hip and cool of you to mark the exact time you became a kunoichi of the Leaf! Now how would you like to join me and my team as our newest team member?" he asked giving me his "nice guy" pose.

"Well..." I trailed off nervously. I really wouldn't mind being on Team Gai. I was already knew them and got along with them fairly well. Lee and TenTen even gave me pointers on taijutsu and weapon use from time to time. It wouldn't be horrible to be on their team, but they were already a solid team. I wanted to experience becoming a team with my own teammates.

"Sorry, Gai." Kakashi said stepping up to meet his friend. "I've already got dibs on training this one and her team." Kakashi ruffled my hair again.

Gai-sensei started to dramatically weep. "It seems you have won this round my eternal rival!" He then did a total one-eighty and jumped back into his signature "nice guy" pose and faced me again.

"But if you ever want to be trained by the best jonin of Konoha my offer still stands Sumiko-chan!" he said and then poofed away.

I turned to Kakashi, "Are you really going to be my team's jonin leader?" I asked excitedly. Kakashi is a really awesome ninja. He may act like lazy and uninterested most of the time to people who don't really know him. To the people who do know him, we know it's a facade. He's always observing, listening, and can kick some serious butt when he wants to.

The silver haired jonin rubbed the back of his neck and laughed nervously. "Well, you weren't supposed to find out until tomorrow, but it seems the cat's out of the bag now."

"Really?! This is so awesome Kakashi-nii!" I exclaimed, and after a few minutes of jumping around in excitement a thought crossed my mind and I stopped. I turned back around to face my guardian and stared at him with a suspicious gaze.

"Wait, does this mean I have to start calling you Kakashi- _sensei_?"

* * *

The next day at the Academy I looked around at the other people in the room while Iruka-sensei was getting things prepared. Twenty-two of us had passed. That would make things a bit weird in sorting out teams, but whatever. Our class was full of impressive names. Among the new genin were a number of clan kids. Ino Yamanaka, Kiba Inuzuka, Shikamaru Nara, Hinata Hyuga, Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame, and Choji Akimichi were the ones with the most prominent names. I guess I could be counted among them to since I held the Hatake name, even though I wasn't born a member.

A couple other notable names were Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki. Sakura didn't come from a shinobi background, or at least a strong one as her family was not well known among the shinobi circles. Sakura though, had made a name for herself by being at the top of the written scores list since she had entered the Academy.

Naruto Uzumaki was well known to be a troublemaker and jokester. His last name was what interested me though. I remember reading about the Uzumakis somewhere, but I couldn't find the scroll that had mentioned them again. It was like it had just vanished. There weren't even any records of it ever existing when I checked back with the library to see if it had been checked out. It was definitely more than a little suspicious.

I wonder who I'd end up being teamed with. If Kakashi was being serious about being my team leader then at least one of my teammates would have a proficiency for ninjutsu. As I was thinking about who my future teammates could be Iruka-sensei called the class to order.

"First off, congratulations to all of you in this room. You have all passed the exam and are now official ninja of Konoha. Today you will be divided into your teams and meet your new senseis." Iruka-sensei announced. "You have been carefully divided into teams that would complement each other's strengths. Now since there are an uneven number of you to split into teams of three as we normally do, one team will have a fourth member." the chunin Academy instructor explained.

"Hinata Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Shino Aburame. The three of you are now Team 8." I glanced around at the three people whose names were called. Shino seemed to be indifferent, Hinata was doing that thing where she messed with her fingers when she was nervous or unsure about something, and Kiba looked excited.

"Our next team will be Team Seven and our four person squad. These for will be Naruto Uzumaki, Sumiko Hatake, Sasuke Uchiha, and Sakura Haruno." I groaned as Iruka-sensei announced my teammates. How the heck were we going to get along enough to work together? We were all such different personalities I was sure it wouldn't take long for us to get into some sort of fight.

And as of some act of the Gods proving me right, Naruto slammed his hands on the desk and shouted, "What?! Iruka-sensei, why does an awesome ninja like me have to be on the same team as Sasuke- _teme_?"

Yup. I knew it.

"We put you two on the same team because Sasuke has the highest scores in the class and you have the lowest." Iruka-sensei said bluntly and there were snickers heard throughout the classroom.

"Does that answer your question, Naruto?"

Naruto sat back down in his seat defeatedly. "Yes Iruka-sensei."

I dropped my head on my desk ignoring the dull pain in my head as my forehead smacked the hardwood. How in the world was I supposed to deal with this mess of a team? How in the world is _Kakashi_ going to deal with us?

It would take a miracle for Sasuke and Naruto to get along, and while I respect Sakura for her booksmarts if she didn't learn to stop fawning over Sasuke and yelling at people for thinking he wasn't a gift from the Gods, we weren't going to get along well either.

"Our final team will be Team Ten consisting of Ino Yamanaka, Shikamaru Nara, and Choji Akimichi." I heard Shikamaru let out a sigh and I huffed in amusement. I'm pretty sure I knew exactly what was going through his head. " _What a drag_ ". I couldn't help but agree with the thought.

"Now that you've all been divided into teams why don't you have lunch with your teammates and get to know each other better. After lunch return here and your jonin instructors should be here to pick you up. You are all dismissed."

As everyone got up to go split into their teams and leave, I saw Sakura chase after Sasuke who was already halfway out the door and Naruto chase after Sakura. I sighed and bid goodbye to Choji and Shikamaru to go track down my new teammates.

As I caught up to them I could hear Sakura trying to flirt with Sasuke. "Hey Sasuke, want to go work on our teamwork together." Sakura said while batting her eyelashes. Sasuke didn't even spare the pink-haired girl a glance he just kept on walking as if she wasn't even there.

"How about we go work on our teamwork, eh Sakura?" Naruto asked waggling his eyebrows in this weird and suggestive way. I didn't catch watch Sakura said next but I did see her whack him across the head and continue on to chase down Sasuke once more.

After seeing the defeated look on Naruto's face and watching him rub the spot where Sakura hit him I decided that I should probably do something. Headaches were no fun after all. "Hey Naruto, come here for a minute will ya?"

He turned toward me with a confused expression and then a smile. "Huh? Sure Sumiko-chan, what's up?"

I focused my chakra until the familiar green of medical chakra was coating my hand. "Here, let me fix that up for you before it bruises. Headaches aren't any fun." I said as I lifted my hand to his head. The green chakra began to glow slightly brighter as I healed the head injury. It wasn't bad so it didn't take up much time.

"Does that feel any better?" I asked.

"Yeah, it feels fine. Wow Sumiko-chan, I didn't know you knew medical jutsu!"

I smiled. "Yup, sure do. So if any of us ever get hurt or anything I'll be able to patch us right back up."

"Awesome! Now when we go on super cool missions we don't have to worry as much since you're a medic. Having you on the team will be super handy. Thanks again Sumiko!" he yelled before he ran off again. I sighed as I watched the orange-clad blond turn a corner and run out of my view. So much for trying to hunt down teammates. Looks like I'll be eating lunch on my own today.

* * *

After eating lunch I started to make my way back to the classroom we were supposed to wait in. As I was passing by a utilities closet I could hear a bunch of rustling. I cautiously opened the door to find Sasuke Uchiha bound and gagged struggling to get you out of the ropes he was tied up in. I just stared at the struggling boy in shock.

"You know, I would ask how you ended up like this but I'm not really sure that I want to know." I said as I removed the cloth gag from his mouth.

"Just untie me."

"Yeah, yeah. Chill out Uchiha, I'll get you untied in just a sec." I told him as I pulled a kunai out of my weapons pouch. "It wouldn't hurt you to say please you know." I added. I always kept my weapons sharp as TenTen had taught me, so the kunai cut through the ropes easily.

"Where's Naruto?" Sasuke asked with venom practically dripping from every word. I blinked in surprise. Naruto did this? _Naruto_? Blond, loud, orange wearing Naruto? He actually managed to catch Sasuke off guard and tie him up? Not sure if I believe that or not.

"I'm not exactly sure where Naruto is right now, but I bet if you can find Sakura you can probably find him near by. He was chasing after her like a lost puppy a little earlier." I reasoned.

I got a "hn" from him in response before he jumped out of the window. He definitely did not seem happy. I mean, he hardly ever seems happy but he looked even less so than usual. I better follow him to make sure he doesn't kill anybody.

* * *

I found Sasuke with Sakura by a bench with her asking him if he was "emotionally prepared". I was so confused.

"Naruto is so lucky not to have parents scold him for not doing any chores or anything. There is no way that my parents would _ever_ let me get away with anything he pulls." Sakura blabbered and my eyes went wide. Did she just- She didn't just- oh goodness she did.

I stepped in front of her and flicked her hard on the nose. "Think before you speak." I said coldly.

She glared at me angrily as she rubbed her nose. "Sumiko! What the hell was that for? That hurt!"

"Do you not realize what you just said? Honestly, you sound like a spoiled brat. _Lucky to not have any parents_? Are you kidding me? Do you even think about what you're saying, or maybe about _who_ it is that you're speaking to? For someone so smart you sure are dumb. You don't know how lucky you are to have parents that love and care about you." I scolded. "Think about what you're saying before you speak. I never want to hear you say something like that again. You don't know how hard it is to be without parents." I finished.

"And lonely." Sasuke added. Sasuke continued to talk while I thought about that word. _Lonely_. I couldn't say I was lonely. I may be barely able to recall what my father or old lady Karani look like, and I haven't been able to remember what my mother or brother look like for years now but I wasn't lonely. I have Kakashi. We may not be blood related but I still consider him family. I had Kakashi, TenTen, Lee, and even Gai and Neji. I knew it was difficult to not have your parents, but I can't say that I'm lonely.

"Sumiko."

I looked up to find my Uchiha teammate staring at me. "Let's go." he said. I glanced at Sakura who was staring at nothing with a shocked look on her face. I turned back to Sasuke and nodded. I followed him back to the classroom as we left a stunned Sakura sitting there on the bench.

* * *

 **That was chapter 2! Thanks for reading and please review! I'd really like to know what you think. The next chapter contains a brand new scene that wasn't included in the 1st version, so I hope you're looking forward to that!**

 **-S.F.E.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi again everyone! Here's chapter 3.**

 **All the usual disclaimers. I don't own Naruto, AtLA, or anything that seems familiar.**

* * *

"Where the hell is our sensei?! Everyone else has been gone for hours!" Naruto complained.

I blew my bangs out of my face in frustration. I agreed with Naruto. I know Kakashi-nii has a reputation for being late, but this was getting ridiculous. The last team left _two hours_ ago. I watched with a bit of satisfaction as Naruto proceeded to hang an eraser over the door so that when Kakashi opened the door it would fall on him.

"There's no way an elite jonin would fall for that, dobe." Sasuke spoke.

"Ehh, I'm not too sure about that. He can fall for some pretty stupid tricks sometimes." I mused out loud. Come to think of it, Gai-sensei could too. Jonin are weird. They were elite soldiers with immense strength, yet they (at least the ones I knew) could fall for some of the simplest pranks.

"Huh? Do you know who our sensei is Sumiko-chan?" Sakura asked. I looked over to see all three of my teammates looking at me curiously. I sighed and rubbed the back of my neck nervously, a habit I had picked up from Kakashi.

"Well, yeah I do. I thought maybe he was just joking, but only Kakashi-nii could be this late." I admitted.

"Our new sensei is your brother?" Sakura spoke.

"Oh, no. We're not siblings. He's my cousin, but he might as well be my brother with him being the one that I live with and all." I answered, using the story the Hokage had created when I first arrived in Konoha.

"What's his name? Is he a super cool ninja?!" Naruto asked.

"His name is Kakashi Hatake. Getting any information from him about himself is more difficult than getting a civilian to chop down a tree only using a single senbon, but from the information I've gathered from others Kakashi is a total badass." I told them.

"Really?! Awesome!"

I nodded. "Yeah. He graduated at a super early age and rose through the ranks until he made jonin when he was about our age."

As I released this information to my teammates I carefully gauged each of their reactions. Sakura looked surprised but didn't say much. Naruto was clearly excited with his exclamations of "No way!" and "Our sensei is so cool!". Sasuke even looked interested. Now that I had their attention time to see if I could sneak in the beginnings of some team work stuff. We need as much work on the teamwork thing as we could get.

"Yeah, when he told me yesterday I didn't really understand why _he_ would be our sensei with as in demand a shinobi he is, but now that I see our team I get it now."

"What do you mean by that?" Sasuke inquired.

"It means that he fits with what I believe to be our team designation."

"Huh? Designation? What's a designation?" Naruto asked.

"A designation is like a label. In this sense it means what type of team we are." I explained.

"What do you mean by the type of team we are Sumiko-chan? Don't they just group us by our exam scores?" Sakura questioned.

"That is part of how they divide us, but think about it. Of what you know of our classmates that graduated along with us can't you think of anything those teams might be specifically suited for?" I asked while hopping out of my chair and sitting on the desk itself so I could fully turn around and face my teammates.

It was several moments before anyone answered, and Sasuke was the one to speak up first. "Hunting and tracking. That's why Team Eight was grouped together."

I nodded. "Yup. Or at least I'm ninety-nine percent positive that's why they were put together on a team."

"Huh? How are they suited for those types of things?" Naruto asked.

I glanced at Sasuke to let him know that he was going to explain this one. He glared at me but proceeded to explain, albeit reluctantly. "The Hyuga posses a dojutsu known as the Byakugan. When activated, it allows them to see not only a person's chakra network but they can see through objects at great distances as well."

"Whoa! Hinata can do all that? Cool!" Naruto exclaimed. I couldn't help but smirk. If Hinata could hear him now she'd faint. She did have quite the crush on him after all.

"Along with the Inuzuka's ninken and their superior sense of smell and the Aburame's kikaichu hunting or tracking down targets should be no problem at all." Sasuke finished.

"So Ino's team has a specific designation as well?" Sakura wondered out loud.

"Yup. She's a Yamanaka and her clan deals mainly in intelligence. Her team is actually pretty interesting. Her and her teammates, Choji and Shikamaru, form another generation of the Ino-Shika-Cho trio. Their families have been allies for a really long time and they've figured out how to combine abilities particularly well, or so I've heard." I answered.

"That's nice and all, but who cares about them. What about us?! What is our team meant to be?!" Naruto demanded. Sakura and Sasuke looked pretty curious too. I met Sasuke's gaze and tilted my head in curiosity. He had figured out another team's pretty easily. Had he not figured out what our team was meant to be? He blinked and with the slightest move of his head he motioned for me to go on. I shrugged and turned back to Naruto and Sakura.

"Well," I started, "why don't we go through our individual strengths and see if we can figure it out, hmm? I'll start. My Academy records would state that I'm best with weapons and ninjutsu. I will say that I am pretty handy with projectiles but as for the ninjutsu thing, I think it's more a matter of chakra control than actual talent." I took a breath.

"What my records won't tell you is that I'm skilled with medical ninjutsu. That and that I have a kekkei genkai, but you'll learn more about that later I'm sure." I explained. I saw Sakura's eyes widen at the mention of medical ninjutsu and Sasuke's narrow when I spoke of kekkei genkai.

"Oh yeah! That's what you used earlier right! That's super cool, can you teach me how to do that Sumiko-chan?"

"You don't have the chakra control to learn medical jutsu, Naruto." Sakura said bluntly as she crossed her arms across her chest. "You're more likely to burn someone with your chakra than heal them."

"My records would tell you that I'm proficient in all subjects, though I prefer ninjutsu and taijutsu." Sasuke cut in, silencing our other two teammates. "What they won't say is that I can successfully perform C-rank elemental ninjutsu. I also come from a clan that possess a kekkei genkai."

I was surprised to hear Sasuke take an active part in this conversation without prompting. He was acting like he neither needed or wanted a team earlier.

"Kekki genki, kekki genki. You all keep mentioning that, but I have no idea what that is!" Naruto yelled.

"First of all, it's _kekkei genkai_ not kekki genki." Sakura explained. "And kekkei genkai are special abilities that only people born to a certain bloodline can use."

"What?! I want a kekkei genkai!"

"You may already have one, seeing as you seem to have a never ending amount of energy to keep that big mouth of yours running." Sakura said.

I could tell by the look on Naruto's face that he was going to start yelling again, so I quickly cut in to hopefully stop him from shouting. "What about you, Naruto? What would you consider your strengths to be?"

"Well, we all know that I'm the best ninja and I'm going to be Hokage one day! I'm good at everything and-" he was cut off by Sakura whacking him on the head.

"Come on Naruto, be serious. Sumiko and Sasuke are taking this seriously and so should you." Sakura scolded.

Naruto rubbed the spot on his head where she hit him and sighed. "Alright, alright. Even though I didn't do so well at the Academy I am pretty good with traps. Not to mention I can also use this super cool jutsu now!" he proclaimed. He then jumped up and proceeded to give us a demonstration.

"Shadow clone jutsu!" he called out and suddenly the room was full of Narutos.

"Naruto! Did you have to fill the room up with your clones?!" Sakura shouted.

Wait, did he say _shadow_ clone jutsu? That was a pretty high level jutsu. Way beyond what the typical genin could do. I poked one in the shoulder and sure enough I was met with a solid clone, not the ones we were taught in the Academy which were merely illusions.

"Huh, that's pretty useful. I can definitely see this coming in handy." I mumbled to myself. Naruto then dispelled the clones and looked at us with a large grin.

"I guess that leaves me." Sakura spoke. "I've always been the best when it comes to written tests. I can see something and recall the image or text perfectly, so I guess I could say memorization is one of my greatest strengths. I'm also pretty good at genjutsu and chakra control too." Sakura stated.

"So we've got two ninjutsu users with taijutsu skills. One of which has trap skills," I said, holding up two fingers, "a person with genjutsu capabilities, and a medic with combat capabilities." I held up another two fingers. "Any guesses on what we are yet?"

"Combat. We're a team designed to deal with heavy combat." Sasuke spoke.

I nodded. "That's what I'd say we are too. Which is why I think Kakashi is a good fit as a sensei for our team. He's known as the Copycat Ninja among our village and others. He's said to have copied over one thousand jutsu with the use of his Sharingan eye."

I could see Sasuke go tense as his eyes widened at my words. He looked like he was going to respond when suddenly I heard a sneeze come from the other side of the door. Oops. I wonder just how much Kakashi had heard.

The doorknob slowly began to turn and we were all waiting with baited breath when Sakura hissed. "Naruto! You left the eraser on the door you idiot!"

As she finished speaking, Kakashi popped his head in and the eraser fell on his head, coating the jonin in a layer of chalk dust. Not that you could really tell though, as most of it landed in his hair which was already a silvery white.

"My first impression of you is... you're all a bunch of idiots."

* * *

We followed Kakashi up to the roof where the four of us new genin were all seated on the floor looking up to Kakashi _-sensei_ –ugh, calling him sensei still felt weird– who was leaning against the railing.

"You four seem to be pretty friendly with each other already," Kakashi started and I snorted when I saw Naruto and Sasuke glare daggers at each other at the notion of _them_ being friends. "But for my sake why don't we all introduce ourselves?"

"Why don't you go first sensei? That way we all know what to say." Sakura piped up.

Kakashi sighed but began to introduce himself. "Alright. My name is Kakashi Hatake. There are things I like and things I dislike too. I don't feel like telling you about my hobbies, and as for my dreams? They're none of your business."

I sighed. Typical Kakashi.

"All you told us was your name! Sumiko-chan was right! You don't talk about yourself at all!" Naruto shouted.

"Well you certainly seem like you do like to talk, so why don't you go next?" he said to Naruto.

"Alright! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I like ramen. Ichiraku's ramen is my favorite, but all ramen is good ramen. I especially like it when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen." Naruto took a breath and then continued to jabber on about ramen. "I don't like the three minutes I have to wait for the ramen to cook when I make instant ramen. My hobbies include trying all different kinds of ramen." All Naruto has talked about is ramen. I didn't think it was possible for anyone to love ramen this much.

"And my dream is to become Hokage! That way people will respect me and stop treating me like a nobody dattebayo!" he declared as he thrust his fist into the air.

"Why don't you go next, Sumiko-chan?"

"Sure thing Kakashi-nii, uhh I mean Kakashi- _sensei_." I cleared my throat and started again. "My name is Sumiko Hatake. I like training, cooking, sweets, and swimming. My favorite place to be is anywhere near water." I said with a smile.

"My dislikes are onions, the smell of strong concentrated vanilla, and creepy looking bugs. My dreams are to do as much as I can to give my loved ones their best shot at a long and happy life and to become an elite kunoichi like Lady Tsunade Senju."

"Very good. Let's have our other young lady go next." Kakashi said. Sakura flicked her long pink hair back behind her shoulder and began.

"My name is Sakura Haruno. What I like – I mean _who_ I like is..." I watched as her eyes drifted over to Sasuke and she giggled. I rolled my eyes. Really Sakura? I mean sure he's good looking, but he's not particularly nice. To anyone.

"I dislike Naruto!" she yelled. "My dream is..." she trailed off into giggles as she once again looked at Sasuke. I frowned. This definitely didn't bode well for team dynamics. Sasuke and Naruto didn't like each other. Sakura didn't like Naruto but was head over heels for Sasuke. I didn't particularly like Sasuke, and in truth I found Naruto and Sakura unnecessarily loud and annoying. And I'm sure at least one of them didn't really care for me either. We seriously have to find out how to all get along or this wasn't going to end well at all.

"Finally, you with the attitude." Kakashi gestured to Sasuke.

"My name is Sasuke Uchiha. I don't particularly like many things, and my dream — no, my goal is to restore my clan and kill a certain someone." he ended darkly. I stared at the raven haired boy. He looked to be deep in thought. Suddenly, he looked up and met my gaze. I could see the pain and hate that filled his eyes when a spark of an idea dashed across my mind. Could Sasuke possibly be the one I was meant to find? It seemed likely, but I needed to be certain. Looks like who knows how many hours of meditation were in my near future.

"Well you certainly are an interesting group." Kakashi said, pulling me away from my thoughts. "You all have very different personalities. Tomorrow meet me at training ground three at seven a.m. sharp."

"Are we going to go on our first mission Kakashi-sensei? Is it going to be something awesome?" Naruto asked.

"Not exactly. Tomorrow, you lot will be put through a survival exercise." Kakashi stated.

"A survival exercise?! But we did tons of those in the Academy!" Naruto complained.

"Yeah sensei. We did those in the Academy. Aren't we going to start going on missions?" Sakura inquired.

Like Sasuke, I stayed silent. Kakashi was up to something.

"This exercise will be different than anything you did at the Academy. This exercise will weed out all the genin potentials who aren't yet ready to become ninja." he stated.

Wait, what? "Then what was the Academy test for, if not to do what you just said?" I asked.

"The Academy test separates those who had no chance at becoming ninja from those who do have potential. This exercise has a sixty-six percent fail rate, so there is a very good chance that none of you will pass." Kakashi said smiling.

I could feel my heart drop into my stomach. Maybe I _should_ have taken up Gai-sensei's offer to join his team.

"But sensei! That's not fair!" Sakura wailed.

"Yeah! We've got headbands that means we're ninja!" Naruto shouted.

While they were loud, I had to admit that they had a point. I turned to Sasuke who had so far been silent through this whole ordeal. He hadn't said anything, but it looked like he really wanted to. He was glaring at Kakashi so harshly that if looks could kill, Kakashi would be dead ten times over. He was also squeezing his fists so hard that his knuckles had gone bone white.

"If you want to be a ninja there is no _fair_." Kakashi explained. "Tomorrow I will decide whether you are worthy to become my students or if you need to be shucked back to either the Academy or the genin corps."

"What?! You can't be serious!" Naruto yelled.

"I am perfectly serious. Whether you pass or fail is on you so come prepared. Oh, and don't eat anything if you don't want to vomit. Sumiko, Naruto, Sakura. You three are dismissed. Sasuke, stay behind."

"Sensei, why does Sasuke have to stay behind?" Sakura asked. I grabbed her arm and shook my head at her. I dragged her away from Sasuke and Naruto, and soon the three of us were walking away from the Academy and Sakura was still glancing behind us to the roof where Kakashi and Sasuke still stood.

"Don't worry about it Sakura. I'm sure he's not in trouble or anything. Want to go get something to eat and talk about what Kakashi-nii might put us through tomorrow?" I asked in hopes of changing the subject.

"I do! I do! And I know the perfect place to go!"

"We are _not_ getting ramen Naruto, so don't even think about it!" Sakura announced.

"Aww come on Sakura-chan!"

"No! Ramen is unhealthy and I'm on a diet." Sakura said putting her foot down.

As the two continued to squabble I was starting to get annoyed. Did they have to be so loud all the time? They were going to drive me crazy! "Will you two shut up!" I shouted.

Sakura and Naruto looked at me in shock. Why were they looking at me like that though? I mean yeah I yelled but it wasn't that shocking. "Uhh, guys? Look I know I told you to shut up but-"

"Uhh Sumiko-chan. That kekkei genkai you mentioned wouldn't have anything to do with ice now would it?" Sakura asked.

"Umm, yes?"

Naruto outstretched his arm and pointed to something behind me. There was a civilian frozen in his yard along with all of his flowers and the water coming out of the gardening hose.

"Oops."

I quickly made the ice melt and grabbed Sakura and Naruto's arms before hightailing it out of the area. Once we were far enough away I stopped running.

"That was a close one. Kakashi-nii would have been pretty upset with me had I gotten caught again."

"You mean that's happened before? What even was that? It was like you shouted and everything froze." Sakura stated.

"That was so cool Sumiko-chan! Man, if I had known you could do stuff like that I would have let you in on some of the pranks I pulled!" Naruto laughed.

"Err, why don't we talk about this once we've found somewhere to eat?" I said, wanting to get out of the middle of the street.

"Let's go to Ichiraku!"

Sakura smacked Naruto on the head. "I already told you we weren't going to eat ramen! You eat way too much of it already."

"But it's right there!" Naruto motioned to the ramen stand down the street. "We're already here! How can we not go to Ichiraku's when we're already here?!"

Sakura looked to me and I shrugged. I didn't really care where we ate as long as we ate something soon. I was starting to get pretty hungry. She sighed in resignation. "Fine. We'll go to Ichiraku, but just this one time! Too much ramen isn't good for anyone."

"Alright!" Naruto cheered and we headed the short way down the street to Naruto's favorite ramen stand.

"Hello, Naruto. Brought some friends with you today did you?" the man running the ramen stand greeted.

"Sure did! This is Sakura-chan and Sumiko-chan. They're two of my new teammates!" Naruto introduced us to the ramen bar owner.

"Oh? Well that's great! Nice to meet you girls, I'm Teuchi and I run this place with my daughter Ayame." A pretty brown haired girl waved to us in greeting. "Food's on the house today kids, so enjoy." he told us with a warm smile.

"Awesome! Thanks Teuchi-san! I'll start off with a large bowl or miso ramen please!" Naruto asked.

"I'll have a bowl of pork ramen please." Sakura said politely.

"Chicken for me please!" I said. Free food? Today was turning out to be a pretty okay day in my book.

* * *

As we were chowing down on our food — which was delicious by the way. I could see why Naruto liked the ramen here so much— Sakura brought up what happened by that civilian's house. "Umm, Sumiko-chan so what exactly happened at the civilian's house?"

"Yeah! You shouted and then BAM! Civilian popsicle."

I laughed nervously. "Well, you see, sometimes when I feel certain emotions really strongly stuff like that happens. It's actually really embarrassing. It usually only happens to kids or people who haven't trained their abilities." I explained.

"So it does have something to do with your kekkei genkai right?" Sakura asked in a whisper.

I nodded. "Yup. I've got an affinity for all things water. If that guy hadn't been watering his plants that probably wouldn't have happened, or at least not to that extreme." I explained.

"Can Kakashi-sensei do that too?" Naruto asked.

I shook my head. "No. It doesn't come from that side of the family." I answered, and technically it wasn't a lie. I looked at Sakura and she was staring at me intently. "Uhh, something else i can help you with, Sakura-chan?"

She blushed at being caught staring. "Ahh, sorry Sumiko-chan. I was just thinking that your looks and water affinity remind me of the Nidaime Hokage, Tobirama Senju. Do you think you might have some Senju blood in you too?" She asked.

I shrugged. "I highly doubt it, but that would have been pretty cool. Hey, so any thoughts on the kind of test you think Kakashi will be giving us tomorrow?" I said, changing the subject. I don't like talking about myself.

Sakura groaned. "Ugh, I don't even want to think about it. What was the point of this," she tapped her Leaf headband, "if we still aren't even real ninja yet."

"Don't get yourself down Sakura-chan! I'm sure we'll all do great and show Kakashi-sensei that we have what it takes to be ninja!" Naruto cheered.

"Well of course _I_ will, and Sumiko-chan probably will too. You should worry about yourself, Naruto. You barely passed the Academy exam." Sakura said.

"Actually, I think it might be up to our whole team to pass or fail." I said, remembering what TenTen had told me about her post-Academy exam.

"Huh, what do you mean Sumiko-chan?"

I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. "I feel kind of dumb for not remembering this before, but a friend of mine mentioned something about a test their jonin sensei had given their team before he officially took them on as students. It was up to all of them to pass since jonin typically take on teams. Only special cases really get a jonin all to themselves." I explained.

Sakura turned to Naruto with fire in her eyes. "You better not mess this up Naruto! I won't be separated from Sasuke because you can't pass a test!"

"Don't worry Sakura-chan! With my new jutsu I showed you earlier today there's no way I won't pass Kakashi-sensei's test tomorrow!"

After a short while longer we wrapped up dinner at Ichiraku's and were bidding each other goodbye. "See you both in the morning!" I called out as we went our separate ways. I was actually pretty pleased with how dinner went. There were several disagreements and shouting matches, but nobody tried to kill each other so I'll count that as a win.

* * *

As I entered my home I saw Anko seated on the sofa. "Hey there gaki. Heard you graduated." Anko greeted.

"Sure did." I replied with a smile.

She reached into her jacket pocket and motioned for me to come closer. I cautiously approached Anko. While I trusted her as a kunoichi, I didn't quite trust her not to play some type of joke just to keep me on my toes. I don't like her jokes. They usually involve some sort of pain for me, and I like to avoid unnecessary pain thank you very much.

"Ha! Glad to see you finally learned to keep on guard, brat, but don't worry, I'm not going to bite. This time." she said with a sly grin. "I stopped by to give you these." she said handing me two dango vouchers and two pieces of paper.

I grinned at the sight of the dango vouchers. These were from my favorite dango stand! But what were these pieces of paper? They were literally two scraps of paper torn at the edges with a hastily scrawled "I.O.U." written on them. I looked up at Anko in confusion.

"They're a little gift for finally becoming a real ninja like the rest of us." she explained.

"Thanks Anko-san, but what are the I.O.U.s for?" I asked.

"Those are favors. You have in your possession two favors that you can call in at any time, no questions asked. When they're gone they're gone so use them carefully, brat." she explained.

"Maa, are you sure you want to give her those? She and her team still have to pass _my_ test tomorrow." Kakashi interjected.

Anko let out a loud laugh. "I've got a good feeling about Sumiko-chan here and the rest of those gakis." Anko said to Kakashi. I narrowed my eyes when she turned to me with a mischievous smirk on her face. "Have fun with that test tomorrow, gaki. He's never passed a team, you know." she told me as she stood up.

"See you losers later!" she called as she jumped out of one of the windows. She could have used the door like a normal person, but then again, Anko wasn't exactly normal.

"You're home later than normal." Kakashi said when Anko was gone.

"We ended up at Ichiraku's and did some talking." I answered.

" _We?_ "

I nodded. "Yup. Me, Sakura, and Naruto. We were kind of hoping that Sasuke might stop by too, with the Uchiha compound being past Ichiraku's and all, but it seems he was indisposed for a while longer than we realized he would be." I answered.

"Yes, he had some questions that needed to be answered."

"Is he okay?" I asked.

"He'll show up tomorrow." was his response. "Get some rest Sumiko. You'll need it for tomorrow."

* * *

OMAKE! Meditation and Ninjutsu.

Today in class we were beginning to learn about ninjutsu. Iruka-sensei told us that at the end of the week we would be attempting to unlock our chakra through meditation. This got me to thinking, do I even have chakra? Would I be able to perform ninjutsu at all? From what I understood of elemental ninjutsu a trained ninja could use more than one element. In my birthland the only one that could manipulate more than one element was the Avatar. Yes, ninjutsu was different than bending, but it was still a little concerning. I would rather find out if I couldn't use chakra on my own than embarrassing myself in front of the whole class. Which brings me to now.

Currently, I was looking for a place to peaceful place to meditate. It was a lot harder to find a quiet place than I thought. Home? Something about it felt wrong. On top of Hokage Mountain? Too noisy. The hill Shikamaru likes to take naps on didn't feel right either. Since nothing that came to mind seemed right I began to wander. I found myself on the banks of the river just outside the training grounds area. This. This place felt right. I sat facing the river and with my back against the tree. I took a deep breath and began to meditate. I don't know how long I had been meditating for but suddenly I felt something. I mentally reached for what I had just brushed against, and then suddenly all I could see was bright light.

"Hello again young one." a familiar voice spoke.

"You come seeking answers." a second voice said.

I knew that voice too. They sound like- no, it couldn't be. Could it?

"We are indeed the same beings that sent you to this world, child." they said simultaneously.

"Uhh, well hello. I-I do have questions. Lots of them actually." I said.

"We will only answer the one you came seeking." the more feminine of the voices spoke.

"The answer is yes. You will be able to use the ability called ninjutsu." the first answered.

"How though? I wasn't born here. I wasn't born with the chakra coils that these people were." I questioned.

"You were however, born with chi. Chi is very similar to the chakra of your current world. The two are not exactly the same, but chakra is everywhere in your world. Your body has already been slowly becoming adjusted to chakra from the moment you arrived. As the pathways of chi and chakra are the same, the two have mixed. You _will_ be able to use ninjutsu Sumiko, but you will find it difficult to learn any element that is not water." the feminine voice answered.

"Worry not, child. Focus on your training, and you will be successful in your endeavors." the other voice comforted.

I nodded. "Thank you for your wisdom and guidance."

"We wish you well. If you have have true need of us, you will find us." the feminine voice told me as their presence faded away.

I opened my eyes and saw the sun setting. How long had I been here? Definitely a couple of hours at least. Well, at least I got my answer, and from the ocean and moon spirits too. I guess that's mission accomplished then.

I slowly stood up, leaning against the tree as I wobbled. Looks like my legs were asleep, _great_. I leaned more against the tree and felt unusual indentions in the bark. I turned to see that something had been carved into the tree. I traced my finger over the kanji symbols that had been cut into the bark.

"Pillar and door? Those are weird words to carve into a tree."

* * *

 **I hope you enjoyed chapter 3 of this rewrite! This omake takes place before graduation. Reviewer I-R-Stormzz raised a good point about Sumiko's ability to use ninjutsu and while I liked the solution offered I'm a bit too lazy to rewrite the story again. So you get this omake instead. I find that I like writing these little blurbs, so I'm looking forward to writing some more in the future. Thanks for reading and please review!**

 **-S.F.E.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Here's a new chapter.**

* * *

I woke up at six a.m. the next morning with a mix of excitement and nerves. After getting dressed I peeked into Kakashi's room to find his bed empty. He left already? That was a surprise. I walked into the kitchen and my stomach let out a loud rumble. I stared at the fruit on the table. I know he said not to eat, but I'm _hungry_. I'd rather barf than go hungry. Besides, it's not like one small apple could throw off my stomach that badly, right? I grabbed the apple and munched on it as I double checked to make sure I had everything I might need for whatever Kakashi had planned for us today.

Kunai, shuriken, and senbon? Check. Water pouch? Check. Basic first aid kit? Check. That seems to be everything. I headed for the door while dragging my hands down my face trying to rub the sleep away. Wait, headband! I can't believe I almost forgot my headband. I ran back to my room and grabbed it from my dresser drawer. Once I had it securely tied around my forehead I headed for the training grounds.

I made it to the training ground at 6:40 a.m. Sasuke was the only one there so far. It wasn't really surprising that he was here so early as he had often showed up to the Academy early. His presence was uninviting as usual, so I sat down a few feet away from him without greeting. We sat in silence for several moments before he spoke.

"How long have you known that Kakashi was in possession of the Sharingan?" Sasuke questioned with a glare.

"About seven or eight months now I think," I answered undaunted by his angry stare. His glower deepened, but he didn't scare me.

"You've known for eight months about him and you never told me."

He did have a point there. I know he had a right to know seeing as the Sharingan is a dojutsu of the Uchiha and all, and I tried to tell him. I really did, but Sasuke made it very difficult to track him down let alone actually talk to him.

"You're right," I told him. "I know I should have told you as soon as I found out, but-"

"You had no right to withhold that information from me!"

"It's not like I didn't try!" I shouted. "Do you know how hard you are to talk to?! I tried to tell you so many times, and every time you just brushed me off."

Sasuke frowned but said nothing.

We stared each other down. Both of us stubbornly refusing to back down and try to work something out. After several minutes I was beginning to get really frustrated. This was getting us nowhere, and if we were going to be part of the same team we have to get over this. Damn it, I hate having to be the bigger person.

"Look, from now on I promise to tell you any information I have and am able to tell that you might be interested in. Even if you are being a pigheaded jerk who won't listen." He glared at my comment. "If there's something you think I might know, just ask and I'll do my best to answer your questions."

Sasuke stared at me and then slowly nodded. Seems like we're in agreement.

"What do you know about-"

"Sasuke-kun! Good morning!" Sakura's cheery voice cut in, and to Sakura's disappointment, Sasuke said nothing.

"Good morning Sakura," I greeted.

"Good morning Sumiko-chan," Sakura said with much less enthusiasm.

"Are you ready for the exam?" I asked,

She nodded with a confident gleam in her eyes. "Yes! I've never failed an exam before and I don't plan on starting now. I can't fail. I have to be on this team," Sakura said. I noticed how her eyes had drifted over to Sasuke halfway through her answer. Said Uchiha was leaning against a tree looking away from us looking as unwelcoming as ever.

I rolled my eyes. Sakura never gives up when it comes to something —or _someone_ really— I'll give her that.

"Hey! I'm not late am I? Kakashi-sensei hasn't gotten here yet?" Naruto asked.

I shook my head. "Nope. Not yet."

"Phew! I thought I was going to be late for sure."

"Nah, you still had time." I told him.

* * *

As it turns out, we had _plenty_ of time. It was nearing nine o'clock and Kakashi still hadn't shown up. I don't know why I was so surprised. I should have known he would have pulled something like this.

"Is Kakashi-sensei ever going to show up?! I'm starving!" Naruto complained. I had to agree with him. I may have eaten before this, but it was just an apple and that was hours ago!

"Ugh, I am tired and I'm hungry." I mumbled to myself. I looked around with droopy eyes and saw the perfect branch to take a nap. I made my way to the tree and walked up the trunk to get to my chosen branch. I made myself comfortable and shut my eyes. If Kakashi was going to make us wait, I might as well get some extra sleep.

"How did you do that Sumiko-chan?" Naruto asked.

I cracked one eye open and looked at my teammates. All three of them looked curious. "What do you mean? How did I do what?"

"How'd you get up the tree without any hands?" Naruto clarified.

"Yeah, you climbed up about twelve feet," Sakura said, judging the distance between the ground and my branch.

"Chakra." I stated.

"Yes, I understand that, but _how_?" Sakura questioned with a tinge of annoyance in her voice.

I sighed. So much for that nap it seems. I swung my legs to the side at sat up so I could fully face them. "Direct the chakra to your feet. That will allow you to stick to the tree and any other surface really once you get the hang of it. Make it up the tree without any mishaps and you've got it. Be careful though, too much chakra and you'll be blasted back. Not enough, and you'll just slip off. Any questions?" I asked, though I was really hoping they didn't have any questions.

Thankfully, there were no questions and they got straight to it. Sakura got it on the first try which was pretty darn impressive. Chakra control came pretty naturally to her it seemed. The boys though, not so much. After about a half hour of watching Naruto and Sasuke try and fail I settled back down onto my branch and fell asleep.

* * *

"Boo."

My eyes flew open and I was greeted with a close-up of Kakashi's face.

"Ahh!" I shrieked and lost my balance. I slipped off the branch and the next thing I knew I was dangling in the air with Kakashi holding me up by the back of my shirt.

"Can't have you getting hurt just yet. We haven't even started yet," Kakashi spoke as he jumped to the ground with the in tow.

He set me down and looked at the others. "Now that we're all awake, let's get started." Kakashi walked over to a nearby training post and pulled out an alarm clock. He then turned to us again. Kakashi reached into his vest pocket and pulled out two little silver bells on red strings. "Your objective for today is to get one of these bells before time runs out. Those of you who fail to get one won't be getting any lunch." he said smugly.

"Gah! But I'm so hungry!" Naruto complained and my stomach clearly agreed with him as it let out a loud rumble. I blushed as everyone looked my way.

"What? I can't be hungry?" I said defensively as I crossed my arms over my chest.

Kakashi cleared his throat and our attention was back on him. "In this test you must come at me with the intent to kill. You can do what you must to get a bell, including using jutsu and shuriken."

"But sensei, those are dangerous. Someone could get hurt!" Sakura cried out. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. As much as I was beginning to like Sakura she could act like such a wimp sometimes.

Wait, did Kakashi just say to come at him with the intent to kill? Does that mean-

"Kakashi! If you say to come at me with the intent to kill does that mean-"

"No."

I groaned in frustration. "You don't even know what I was going to-"

"Yes, I do and the answer is _no_ ," Kakashi spoke with the tone that I had long since learned meant that the conversation was over.

I huffed and glared at him but said nothing. I shouldn't have even asked for permission. He wouldn't have been able to say no that way. I was drawn out of my thoughts as I watched Naruto rush Kakashi with a kunai in hand, only to have his plan backfire on him.

"Eager one aren't you? I didn't even say start yet, but at least you came at me with the intent to kill," Kakashi said and then let Naruto go.

"Begin."

As soon as Kakashi spoke that word we all scattered and hid. Well, almost all of us. Naruto stood there in the clearing wanting to face Kakashi head on. The result wasn't pretty. That 1,000 Years of Death jutsu is really gross.

I had to think of a plan. How the hell was I supposed to get a bell on my own when my opponent was a jonin? My taijutsu was good for a genin, but not nearly good enough to take on an elite jonin like Kakashi. There was no way in hell I could use a genjutsu. Even if I didn't completely suck at casting them Kakashi would be able to see right through it. The only ninjutsu I knew besides standard Academy-taught ones were a few low level water jutsu and some medical ninjutsu. None of that was good enough to take on Kakashi either.

I sighed in frustration. Screw it, I'm using my waterbending. He didn't explicitly say not to use it since he wouldn't even let me finish a freaking sentence.

I followed Kakashi and found him using a headhunter jutsu on Sasuke. I looked at him for a moment before going after Kakashi. I'd get him out of that later.

"Ah, Sumiko. I was wondering when you would make your move," Kakashi spoke nonchalantly as he continued to read his adult book. I scrunched my nose in distaste.

"You really shouldn't be reading that in public. Especially in front of _innocent_ and _impressionable children_ , Kakashi- _sensei_." I scolded. I popped the lid on my waterskin and drew out a small amount of water. Just enough to create these incredibly thin, but sharp ice needles and send them at Kakashi.

He looked up from his book and lifted his visible eyebrow. "I thought I told you not to use those techniques."

" _Technically_ , you didn't tell me not to. You wouldn't let me finish a sentence, therefore you did _not_ give orders for me to not use my waterbending." I said as I quickly ran through a series of hand signs.

"Water style" Water Cannon Jutsu!" A large, fast moving, boiling jet of water came shooting out of my mouth. Kakashi quickly retaliated with another water jutsu which cancelled them both out and left a whole bunch of water on the ground. Perfect.

"You know I was the one that taught you that jutsu, right?" Kakashi asked sarcastically.

"Yup. I've also learned enough from you to know that the only way I stand even a hair's breath of a chance at my current level is to use my waterbending. Thanks to you, there's now enough available water for me to try out something I've been working on," I said with a grin. With a few quick and fluid movements I bent the water to my will to create my octopus form.

"Doesn't look like anything new. You've been using this form since the day you got here, Sumiko." Kakashi said as he headed toward me. I shot two of the water tentacles out to pin his arms. I used the water to force his arms out to his sides and slammed him against a nearby tree.

"Here's the new part," I said as I flicked my fingers causing the water around Kakashi to freeze; leaving the silver haired jonin stuck in a blanket of ice.

"Impressive new trick, but this is still just ice. I can get out of this." Kakashi said as he tried to break free.

"Not so fast sensei. I've infused chakra into this water. As long as I've got some sort of connection I can keep you in one place for a little while." I explained with a tired grin. It was taking large amounts of chakra to keep him restrained.

"Not bad. But if you're stuck up to your elbows in the ice that's keeping me down, how do you plan on getting a bell?"

I frowned. He was right. I didn't think things through. At this point I was just as stuck as he was. Unless...

"I'll just get one of the others to help me! That way we both get a bell." I exclaimed. "This'll totally work. I just passed Sasuke on my way over here. He can't have gone that far yet. Not if he was stuck in- oh."

As I realized exactly where I had last seen Sasuke, I lost my concentration and Kakashi slipped from my hold. He rushed at me and jabbed me in the gut. I was knocked back into a tree, but managed to quickly get back up.

"You left your teammate stuck in an enemy jutsu? Did you even bother looking for the other two before you came at me?" Kakashi questioned in a scolding tone as he came at me again.

"No," I admitted meekly after I dodging his attack. I didn't even think of looking for any of the others. It was by chance that I came across Sasuke, but I had no idea where Sakura or Naruto were.

"Do you see where you went wrong?" Kakashi asked as he stopped his attacks.

"If I would have gotten him out, or looked for the others, we would have had a better chance at getting the bells from you. All it would have taken is a little teamwo-" I stopped myself mid-sentence and sent a sly glare at Kakashi.

"That was the whole point from the beginning wasn't it? You wanted us to work as a team." Wow. I am seriously stupid. How could I have not realized that before? I knew jonin tests for their potential genin were pass/fail as a team, not as individuals.

Kakashi sighed. "At least one of you figured it out. Though you were a bit late on the pick up," he said just as the timer went off. I groaned as Kakashi used a jutsu to flicker away.

I made my way back to our starting point only to find Naruto tied to a post and Sasuke still stuck in Kakashi's jutsu. I glanced over to Sakura to see a worried expression on her face.

"It's safe to say that none of you need to go back to the Academy," Kakashi spoke with an eerie calmness to his voice. I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. Something about this didn't feel right.

"Really?" Naruto asked excitedly. Sakura looked relieved and Sasuke still didn't seem even remotely happy. Though, that might have more to do with him still being stuck neck deep in dirt than Kakashi's words.

"In fact, you all should be dropped from the program!" Kakashi said in a thunderous voice. I sighed. I knew he wouldn't let us off so easily.

"Only one of you grasped the point of this exercise," he said looking in my direction, "and by the time you did, Sumiko, it was too late."

"But Kakashi-sensei, I thought the objective was to get a bell?" Sakura asked.

"That's what he said, but the real point of this test was for us to work together to try to get the bells. " I explained quietly. I understood it now. I just wish I would have figured it out earlier.

"Sumiko it correct. Did you ever think about why you were split up into teams?" Kakashi asked.

"But there were only two bells! That means two of us would have been sent back no matter what! It was like you were trying to pit us against each other." Sakura protested.

"Being a ninja means that you will sometimes be forced to make difficult decisions," the jonin explained. "For instance, Sakura, kill Naruto or Sasuke dies." Kakashi ordered.

My eyes widened in shock and before I knew it I had both Sakura and Kakashi's hands and feet frozen in ice. Once I realized what happened, I quickly released them both. I could feel the heat rise to my cheeks. I lost control again! That's twice in the past two days! I've had my abilities in control before I even came to Konoha. What the heck was it that was making my control slip now?

As I mulled over my thoughts I heard Kakashi say that he would give us a second chance after lunch. He also said that none of us were to let Naruto eat.

Sakura, Sasuke and I all sat down in front of Naruto to eat out lunch. I opened my bento to reveal some onigiri. I liked to keep my lunch simple on days that I knew would be training. Naruto's stomach let out a loud growl at the sight of all of our food. I looked at Naruto and frowned. I couldn't just let him starve.

"Hey, Naruto," I called. As soon as he opened his mouth to reply to my call, I stuffed one of the onigiri in his mouth. He chewed and swallowed it quickly.

"Hehehe, thanks Sumiko-chan." Naruto said sheepishly. Sasuke then shoved his lunch toward Naruto as well.

"Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, "But Kakashi-sensei said-"

"He'll only slow us down if he's hungry," Sasuke spoke. Sakura sighed and fed some of her lunch to Naruto as well.

"I'm on a diet anyway," she mumbled.

As we took our turns stuffing food into the mouth of our blond teammate, a dark cloud formed over us. "You all have broken the rules!" Kakashi boomed, popping out of the dark cloud.

I stood up and glared at Kakashi. I'd probably get an earful once we were home, but I've seriously had enough. "So what if we broke your rules? We were helping our teammate," I challenged.

"Yeah. We're a team. We are one," Sasuke stated confidently.

Sakura stood up with us too and though she mustered a semi-confident face, she didn't say anything. We all stood there, refusing to back down, and then the dark cloud disappeared. Kakashi was smiling through his mask.

"You all... pass."

I let out a sigh of relief and dropped to the ground. Thank the spirits we passed. I don't know what I would have done if he actually dropped us from the program.

"You all are the first ones who have ever broken my rules. Everyone else had been too scared of the consequences and followed my orders. Here's your first lesson as ninja; those who break the rules are scum, but those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."

"Team Seven, report here tomorrow morning at eight for our first mission." Kakashi instructed before flickering away.

The rest of us started to walk away when Naruto shouted, "Hey, guys! Don't forget about me!"

I spun around to find the loud blond still tied to the post. Looks like in all the commotion, we forgot to untie him. Oops.

"Thanks, Sumiko-chan! I thought you guys would have just left me here," Naruto laughed after I had let him loose.

"Err well to be honest, I almost forgot. Good thing you said something or you would have gotten left behind."

"It's okay Sumiko-chan, but oh man can you believe it?! We're actually ninja now! I'm so excited!" he cheered. I watched Naruto parade around doing some sort of happy dance. He was so cheerful and his smile was so contagious that I couldn't help but smile and laugh along with him.

"I'm gonna be the best ninja ever, and I'll be Hokage some day! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed as we walked away from the training grounds.

"Our lives will definitely be getting much more interesting from now on, that's for sure." I said. As excited as I was to finally be an official kunoichi of Konoha, I couldn't help but wonder if I was _really_ ready. I had seen the way Kakashi had come back from some missions. There were a couple of really bad times where he wouldn't eat much or talk for a few days. I couldn't even imagine what _he_ , the great and fearsome Kakashi Hatake, had gone through to make him act like that. Was I really ready for all this?

 _"_ _Fight for your new home, dear child. Protect your home and its people."_ The voices of the moon and ocean spirits echoed through my head, halting my self doubt. The words were a reminder. A reminder that I had to be ready, whether I liked it or not. This place was my new home. It was the home of the ones I had come to love, and I would protect them both.

* * *

 **Well, there ya have it folks. If anyone is interested in reading more of my stuff, I'll be putting up the first chapters of a few different stories soon, so be on the look out for those. As always, thank you to those who take the time to read and review my stories. It really means a lot. Thanks again. -S.F.E.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Alrighty everyone! Here's chapter 5.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, AtLA, or probably anything else you recognize.**

 **Happy Independence Day to all my readers from the U.S.!**

* * *

It was a few days after our first mission, if you could really call what pulling weeds for an old lady a mission. Though, I can't say the experience wasn't interesting. Naruto got a little too excited and started pulling out plants at breakneck speeds. Unfortunately for everyone involved, he didn't only pull out weeds, he also pulled out the rare herbs the old woman had been growing in her garden. Needless to say, she wasn't very happy.

Today, we were just doing some team training. This was our first official team training, but I like to consider all the time we spend training in the same vicinity before Kakashi shows up team training too. The boys had finally figured out the tree walking thing, and we had moved on to water walking. Were we getting somewhere? Yes. Was it far enough to stop Naruto or Sasuke from falling in the water every few seconds? No.

"Good morning, Sumiko-chan!" Sakura called out cheerfully.

"Good morning, Sakura-chan," I responded.

"Do you know what Kakashi-sensei is planning on having us do today?" she asked me as we walked the short rest of the way to the meeting place together.

I shook my head. "Nope. He doesn't like to tell me what we'll be doing for the day because he knows I'll let you all know. He says it takes all the fun out of planning torture for his students," I told her and couldn't help but let out a laugh at her exasperated expression. She stayed like that for a few moments until we approached the training ground and she caught sight of Sasuke standing there.

"Good morning, Sasuke-kun!" Sakura waved as we approached our dark haired teammate. Sasuke didn't only not acknowledge her, but he moved away from her as she approached. I frowned as I caught a glimpse of Sakura's crestfallen expression. He could have at least nodded or something. He doesn't have to be so rude. Taking another glance at Sakura's deflated form, I walked up to Sasuke.

"You know how I agreed to tell you things I thought you should know?" I asked, and he looked at me with a glimmer of interest. "When someone greets you, it's polite to respond."

"Hn," Sasuke huffed with a glare.

"There! That right there would have been enough. It doesn't even have to be a full verbal response! Just _some_ form of acknowledgement."

"Tch. Leave me alone."

"Why should I? If you're going to be rude to us, what's stopping me from being rude to you?" I told him putting as much brattiness in my voice as I could manage.

Sasuke glared at me. "You're just as bad as they are," he spat.

"As bad as who? Naruto? Sakura? I think they're pretty great so that's not as bad of an insult as I'm sure you meant it to be," I told him nonchalantly.

"Sumiko," Sakura's nervous voice called out, "I really think that yo-"

I cut her off. "Don't worry about it Sakura," I said bluntly my eyes still on Sasuke.

"What do you want?" he hissed. I looked at him through narrowed eyes.

"I want to know why you're so rude to everyone! Why you think you're above everyone else! I want to know why you close yourself off from anyone who dares to even try to talk to you, and why you act like you couldn't care less about anyone but yourself!" I shouted and then stared at Sasuke as I caught my breath. He was angry, that much was clear, but that was nothing new. When isn't he angry?

"I _know_ I'm better. Why should I care about anyone when you all just get in my way and slow me down. You're all worthless to me." Sasuke said icily.

I heard Sakura gasp at his words and I took a deep breath to stop myself from from attacking him. Attacking your teammate is a big no-no, Sumiko. Even if he is the biggest ass in Konoha.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Naruto asked happily, as if he couldn't feel the amount of tension surrounding the scene he had just walked into. I didn't turn around to greet the blond haired boy as I usually would. My attention was focused solely on the scowling Uchiha boy in front of me.

"Uhh, Sumiko? Why do you look like you're about to kill Sasuke?" Naruto asked nervously.

"Because I just might," I answered through grit teeth.

"Hn. Yeah, right. Like you could even land a hit on me, _worthless_ ," Sasuke sneered.

My fury soared at his words. _Worthless_? I'll show you worthless you pompous son of a bi-

"Uhh, S-s-sumiko?" The sound of Naruto's chattering teeth pulled me out of my thoughts. I turned around to look at him to see that he and the surrounding vegetation had had their bottom halves frozen.

I sighed. "Not again," I muttered and waved my arm down, turning the ice back into water.

"What was that?" Sasuke demanded. I turned back to him with a smug grin on my face.

"What? Don't you know what your teammates are capable of?" I mocked.

"Yeah, teme! Sumiko-chan has this super awesome ability. You'd have known that if you weren't such a bastard!" Naruto shouted. Sakura bashed Naruto in the head.

"Don't yell at Sasuke-kun, you idiot!" Sakura yelled.

"I don't need your help. You're as useless as the rest of them," Sasuke spat and Sakura retreated into herself.

"Do you have to be such a jerk?" I sneered.

"Yeah, don't yell at Sakura-chan you bastard!"

"I don't need scolding from _you_ , dead last."

"You wouldn't need scolding if you were a little more polite," I bit back.

"Tch. You're just as bad as the two of them," Sasuke told me.

I rolled my eyes. "Again, that's not exactly an insult."

Tensions were on the rise again and this time it involved the entire team. We were all stubborn and refused to back down, so the arguing continued. At least, that is, until Kakashi showed up.

"How nice it is to see all my cute little students getting along," he said sarcastically. We all turned to face Kakashi. All of us but Sakura still had anger clearly written on our faces. She looked like she had just got caught sneaking dessert before dinner time.

"I tried to stop them Kakashi-sensei! I did! But Sumiko kept pestering Sasuke and the Naruto came and-"

I rolled my eyes at her excuses. Oh yeah, put all the blame on me and Naruto. It wasn't like you physically hit Naruto or Sasuke argued right back or anything. Tch. See if I ever try and stick up for you again _Sakura-chan_.

"Since you all seem so eager to get to know each other better," Kakashi spoke. "You all will be doing some sparring amongst yourselves today. This gets everything out in the open and allows me to see how well you do against someone closer to your own level."

"Tch." I rolled my eyes at the sound. I don't need two guesses to know who that was. He couldn't believe that any of us could be anywhere close to his level. He was the great _Sasuke Uchiha_ after all.

"So do I have any volunteers?" Kakashi asked.

I automatically stepped forward and Sasuke did the same.

Kakashi sighed. "I didn't even need to ask did I? Alright, rules are that you stop at my command or when the other yields. This is just a friendly spar between teammates, so let's not try and kill each other. Understood?"

"Understood," I said sharply. I was ready to knock this guy down a peg or two. I might not win, but I'm sure as hell going to put up a good fight.

"Hn," was the only acknowledgement Sasuke gave. I cracked my knuckles and clenched my hands into fists. I began to gather chakra in my legs and feet to give me a speedy takeoff once Kakashi allowed us to start the spar.

"You go Sumiko-chan! Kick teme's ass!" Naruto cheered from the side.

"Shut up you idiot!" Sakura whacked Naruto over the head once more. "Go Sasuke-kun!" I rolled my eyes at their behavior and refocused on my opponent.

"Begin."

As soon as the word left his lips, I dashed straight towards Sasuke using the extra speed boost from the chakra I had gathered and aimed to land a punch on his obnoxious face. I was satisfied when I heard a loud crunch. I jumped back a safe distance away to see blood flowing from Sasuke's nose.

"Sasuke-kun, your nose!" Sakura cried. "You didn't have to hit him so hard Sumiko!" Sakura yelled.

"You broke the bastard's nose! You're so awesome Sumiko-chan!" Naruto exclaimed from beside Sakura.

"So much for not being able to get a hit in, huh _Sasuke-kun_?" I mocked. "Never underestimate your opponent. Especially not your own teammates. You'll find we're not so _worthless_ as you claim," I hissed at him. I saw his face contort into one of rage and Sasuke rushed at me, ready to pay me back for breaking his nose. I dodged to the left, but was a second too slow in avoiding his attack. He got me with a punch straight to the gut and I got the wind knocked out of me.

Well, he can certainly throw a good punch. He came at me again, but I was ready this time. I sidestepped and grabbed his arm. His other arm came to punch me, but I kicked it away. I wasn't expecting him to break out of my hold and grab my leg. I knew what I was about to do was risky, but I had to do something. And truthfully, I had been dying to do this for a while now too. I swiftly brought up the one leg I was still standing up on and kicked Sasuke hard in the pelvic area. I heard him let out a shaky breath before he let go of my leg. He proceeded to jump away from me before dropping to his knees.

"Oww, that's gotta hurt," I heard Naruto say sympathetically from the sidelines. I didn't look at him, but I didn't need to to hear the cringe in his voice.

"S-sumiko! What did you do to Sasuke-kun?!" Sakura cried out in worry. I could even hear Kakashi mutter an "ouch" from where he stood.

Sasuke looked at me with an expression full of pain and fury. The look in his eyes screamed vengeance, and it kind of scared me. Oops. Didn't take into consideration what his reaction would be when doing that. Big mistake on my part.

My eyes widened as he quickly made a series of handsigns. I let out a nervous squeak as he brought his hand to his mouth. Crap, crap, crap. I had seen him use this jutsu before. It was the signature ninjutsu of the Uchiha, the Fireball jutsu. I threw myself out of the way of the large ball of fire, but I wasn't fast enough to get away completely unscathed. The blaze had caught the edges of my jacket and parts of my pants as I rolled away.

As soon as I stopped rolling I took a quick look and inspected the damage. I felt some burning on my right leg that would probably have to be addressed soon, but that wasn't what I was most concerned about right now. I looked over my jacket and sighed in relief. The edges of the white trim were scorched pretty badly, but it wasn't completely irreparable.

"Damn you, Uchiha! I just bought this jacket!" I complained angrily. I jumped up back into a protective stance and huffed. I had thought that we might be able to keep this, just straight taijutsu, but it seems I was wrong. If Sasuke wanted to break out ninjutsu then so be it. I quickly ran through my own series of handsigns.

"Water style: Water Cannon jutsu!" I yelled out and then a jet of boiling hot water headed towards Sasuke. But I wasn't done just yet. I ran at Sasuke as soon as he dodged my water jutsu. I crouched down into a sweeping kick and my right arm stretched out to follow the circular pattern of my kick. With one arm out, I was left with an opening and Sasuke used it to his advantage. I braced myself for the oncoming hit and when the bottom of his shoe met my face all I could hear was the familiar crunch of a broken nose.

I may have taken a hard hit, but it was worth it. While spinning, I had gathered the water left behind from my jutsu and created a water whip. I sent my whip out and bound Sasuke's hands together. I pulled him closer to me so I didn't have to send the chakra I had infused into the water so far away from me.

At this point, we were both stuck. He couldn't get out of my hold, and I still hadn't worked out the kinks in this since going up against Kakashi meaning I was stuck just as much as he was. So, unless we were going to resort to seeing who could kick each other's shins the hardest, we were at a stalemate.

"Seeing as the two of you are both stuck, I'll call this a draw," Kakashi said with a smile.

Right. Well my anger has thoroughly fizzled away and I proved my point. I'll take a draw. I wasn't really expecting to win, anyway. I looked at Sasuke and while he still looked angry, he didn't look quite as furious or disagreeable as he did this morning.

"I'm sorry," I started. "You struck a cord when you called me worthless, but it's still no excuse. I shouldn't have pushed you as much as I did." I apologized. Sasuke stared at me but said nothing. "We good?" I asked.

"Hn," he huffed but he didn't look angry. I stared at him some more in hopes of prying out an answer I could actually understand and was met with the faintest inclination of his head. I smiled, released our hands, and we walked to the sidelines as Kakashi called up Sakura and Naruto for their turn.

I dropped to the ground and leaned against the tree behind me. As my butt hit the ground I felt my nose throb in pain. Oh, that's right. Sasuke broke my nose. I took a couple of deep breaths before lightly running my hand down the length of my nose inspecting the damage. After estimating how bad the break was - it was bad, but it could have been worse- I channeled chakra into my left hand and watched as it began to glow a soft green color. I could have used my waterbending to heal my nose, but I needed the practice with medical ninjutsu.

Using my hand that was channeling medical chakra, I pushed my nose closer to where it should be and began to heal it. "Damn, that hurt" I wheezed out in a nasally voice. I stopped the flow of medical chakra when the pain subsided. I then turned my attention to the burns on my leg made by Sasuke's Fireball jutsu. I looked at the puffy red flesh and wrinkled my nose at the sight. My leg looked pretty nasty. Pieces of the fabric from my pants that hadn't completely burned away stuck to the stick and gross flesh of my leg. Some scraps of fabric looked like they had fused with the burnt skin. Ick.

I pulled out my first aid kit and procured the pair of sterilized tweezers I had in there. Bit by bit, I carefully plucked out the pieces of cloth before drawing some water out of my waterskin. Yeah, I needed the practice with medical jutsu, but this was nasty and the coolness of the water would help ease the pain. I gathered the water around my hand and watched as it began to glow a bluish white when it touched my charred flesh. I sighed as the pain went away almost instantly. It just had to be fire didn't it? Fire _hurt_. At least my water only leaves you soaking wet or feeling a little cold if I'm using ice. Fire burned.

After healing up my injuries I looked at Sasuke. He was some ways away from me, but I could tell from where I was seated that he looked uncomfortable and was in a fair bit of pain. I suppose it _was_ my fault that he was in pain. I should probably help Sasuke and at least fix his face. I sighed and got up. My stomach was still a bit sore from his punch, so I slowly made my way over to Sasuke and sat down beside him.

"Hey there," I said awkwardly.

"Hn."

I huffed, "Look, I'm trying to make peace. Are you willing to let me heal your injuries? Or at least fix your nose?" I asked him, holding up a green chakra covered hand as proof of my gesture.

Another "Hn" was the only verbal response he gave me, but he did turn his face toward me. I reached out with the hand that wasn't coated in healing chakra and he automatically moved his head away. I groaned in frustration.

"I have to inspect the injury first, dummy," I explained. Sasuke looked at me with narrow eyes for a moment before bringing his head back within my reach.

"Thank you," I whispered before gently tracing my fingers down the ridge of his nose and I quickly found the break. It seemed to be a clean enough break, so it shouldn't prove too difficult to heal.

"This might hurt a little bit," I warned as I grabbed his nose with my hand channeling medical chakra and set it back into place. I saw him clench his fists, but he made no audible sound that showed his discomfort. When his nose was in the position I wanted I began channeling more chakra to heal his wound.

"Let me know when it feels normal, okay?" I told him. I wasn't expecting an answer from him, and I didn't get one. After a very short while of using medical jutsu on Sasuke he grabbed my wrist and pushed it away from his face. That was his way of saying he didn't need any more healing I guess.

"You're not worthless."

My eyes shot up to meet Sasuke's, but his gaze was fixed firmly on the ground. "Huh?" Did I just hear that right? Did he really say that.

"I said you're not worthless," he said a little louder this time.

I smiled at his words. "Thanks, Sasuke. It means a lot," I told him.

"Hn."

We sat side by side in silence until it began to get awkward - it didn't take very long for that to happen. I cleared my throat and spoke up. "So, as for your nose, I would suggest not doing anything where you might get hit in the face again for a couple of days just in case."

"Does anything else hurt?" I asked. He quickly looked away, but I could still see his cheeks turn a dark pink. My brows furrowed to show my confusion. What injury did I cause that would make his face turn pink? I looked him up and down mentally cataloging the injuries I could have caused. What did I- oh. Ohhh. My gaze dropped down to his lap before quickly looking else where. I could feel my own face turn red.

"Sorry Sasuke, I can't help you there. I- I mean I guess I technically _can,_ but I don't think you'd want me to," I stammered. Oh my god, why did I even bring that up. It would be so awkward having to have my hand over his- his- his _groin area_ for however long it took to heal him. Plus, I think Sakura would literally try to kill me if she saw that. I looked at Sasuke to see his face had turned an even brighter shade of red. I whacked his shoulder when I realized.

"You do, you pervert!" I gasped. I could feel my face heat up even more - if that was even possible at this point. I couldn't believe Sasuke was such a pervert!

"What?! Who's a pervert, Sumiko-chan?" Naruto asked. It seemed that while attending to our injuries, I had missed Naruto and Sakura's entire spar. Naruto was now directly in front of us with Sakura and Kakashi trailing behind. I glanced slyly at Sasuke before turning back to Naruto.

"Well you see Naruto, I have recently discovered that Sa-" I was cut off by a hand being placed over my mouth.

"Not a word," Sasuke hissed darkly into my ear.

"What were you going to say Sumiko-chan?" Naruto asked curiously.

"Naruto! Didn't you hear Kakashi-sensei calling you?" Sakura yelled, clearly irritated with Naruto. Her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates when she glanced my way though.

"Sumiko! What are you doing so close to my Sasuke-kun?!" Sakura shrieked in horror and I swear that girl almost had a heart attack right there. I looked slightly behind my right side from the corner of my eye to see Sasuke frowning deeper than usual. I guess he didn't take too kindly to having a boy crazed thirteen year old girl calling him _hers_. Frankly, I couldn't blame him.

I pried Sasuke's hand off of my mouth so I could speak clearly. "Just asking Sasuke here if he had any other injuries that needed attending to since I just finished fixing up his nose," I calmly explained to her, though my words did nothing to calm her. She looked like she was ready to explode.

However, before Sakura had the chance to respond, Kakashi interrupted the conversation. "Well, have we got our problems all sorted out now?" Kakashi asked and Sasuke and I nodded. "Good," our sensei smiled. "Now, based on your performances today it's obvious to me that you all have your own strengths and weaknesses." He began to go through each of our individual strengths and weaknesses. "Let's start with you Sumiko. While your taijutsu skills are good for your current level, you need to work on evasion. As a capable medic we need you to stay out of danger. You need to learn to let your teammates take the offensive more often so you can hold on to your chakra for any medical emergencies that may arise. Got it?"

I nodded. It would be strange to rely on other people to get the fighting done, while I hung back away from most of the danger, but that was a medic's role. And as I was the only person on this team capable of healing, it would be the role I took on.

"Sasuke, your skills are good, but you can let your anger get the best of you. You'll end up being one of this team's main combatants so you'll have to learn to control that temper." Sasuke nodded stiffly at Kakashi's words and Kakashi moved on to Sakura.

"Sakura, you have a good knowledge of shinobi rules and techniques, but you need to work on your physical skills. Seeing as you all have already mastered the tree walking exercise in just a few days, I can tell that this team will be progressing quickly. If you don't want to get left behind, you need to train more. Understood?"

"Yes, sensei!" Sakura said with determination in her eyes.

"Finally, we have you, Naruto." Kakashi said.

"Alright! Lay it on me Kakashi-sensei! I'll train even harder so I can be the best ninja ever!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Right. You Naruto have the strength, stamina, and chakra reserves to be another combatant like Sasuke. However, you rush in without thinking and your chakra control, while it's improved some, is still terrible. Work on it."

Naruto nodded with eyes shining with focus, clearly taking everything Kakashi-sensei was saying seriously. "You got it sensei!"

"Now that all of you know what to work on, what do you say we call it a day. I don't know about you four, but I've got things I need to take care of. Meet at the Hokage Tower at 8 o'clock sharp tomorrow morning," Kakashi instructed before poofing away.

We genin stood around there for a few moments before Sasuke, Sakura, and I all started going our separate ways. "Hey! Wait a minute, guys! Aren't you going to work on what Kakashi-sensei said too?" Naruto asked.

"Tch. I've trained my patience with you all plenty today," Sasuke said before walking on.

"Sumiko-chan! Aren't you going to train some more?"

"I am," I answered. "But I need to get my jacket fixed first," I said sending a half hearted glare in Sasuke's direction. "Besides, Kakashi said I need to work on evasion. I know a couple of people who are pretty fast that might be willing to help me out with this," I said thinking of Lee and TenTen. I had a feeling that Lee wouldn't need much convincing as he had always been willing to help me out before. Something about him "always willing to assist a beautiful flower of Konoha". TenTen might need a little more convincing, but I figured that if I bribed her with the offer of free food I'd stand a better chance.

"Aww man. Ehh, what about you Sakura-chan?" Naruto asked hopefully. Sakura glanced towards me before shaking her head at Naruto. Wait, what? What did she look at me for? Naruto sighed. "Alright. I'll see you tomorrow then," he said.

"See ya," I said and began to walk away from the training grounds. As I was walking through the village I noticed that Sakura was still following me. I stepped into the crowd of people walking through the village streets and ducked down an alleyway. I watched from the shadows as Sakura looked around trying to find me. Why was she following me? What did she want? I stepped out of the alley and snuck up behind her.

"Boo," I said close to her ear and she jumped with a startled shriek.

"Sumiko! Why would you do that?" Sakura asked.

"Why are you following me?" I retorted with a raised eyebrow.

She laughed nervously. "Caught on to that did you?"

"What do you want, Sakura?"

"I want you to train me!" she shouted at me.

Uhh, what? "You want _me_ to train _you_?" I asked, just in case I had misheard her.

"Yes," she said confidently.

"Why? I mean we're both genin. I'm pretty sure we're on the same level."

"You know that's not true. You got a few hits in and held your own against _Sasuke_. Not even Ino could do that. You're a better fighter than me and I need your help to get stronger," Sakura spoke.

I sighed. "Sakura, look, it's not that I don't like you or anything," that was only a partial lie. I was beginning to like her more, but she could still annoy me, "but I'm not sure I'll have the time to help you with your training between my training, team training, and mission work."

"I promise I'll work really really hard!" Sakura pleaded. I groaned. I was sure I'd regret this at some point.

" _Fine_ ," I conceded. You get _one_ chance to prove that training you will be worth my time," I said as I crossed my arms across my chest. Sakura hugged me and I stiffened up. I wasn't used to people coming up and hugging me out of the blue like that. Nobody who wasn't Lee or Gai-sensei anyway.

"Don't make me regret this," I told her as I pried her off of me.

"You won't, I promise," she grinned.

* * *

OMAKE: Kakashi P.O.V.

"What? Don't you know what your teammates are capable of?"

"Yeah, teme! Sumiko-chan has this super awesome ability. You'd have known that if you weren't such a bastard!"

"Don't yell at Sasuke-kun, you idiot!"

"I don't need your help. You're as useless as the rest of them."

Just what did I get myself into? Why did I agree to take on this team again? Even after that big speech about them _being one_ , they're still having issues with teamwork. Actually, it seems like their teamwork is getting worse. If that was even possible.

"Do you have to be such a jerk?"

"Yeah, don't yell at Sakura-chan you bastard!"

"I don't need scolding from _you_ , dead last."

Not completely surprising though, I suppose.

" _Don't yell at Rin-chan you jerk! She was only trying to help!"_

" _I don't need advice from you, do I dead last?"_

" _Kakashi, you bastard!"_

I sighed. Hopefully, they'll have a better ending then we did, Obito, Rin.

"You wouldn't need scolding if you were a little more polite."

"Tch. You're just as bad as the two of them."

"Again, that's not exactly an insult."

I sighed, best to get this all sorted out now. Today's going to be a long day.

* * *

 **There's Chapter 5! As always, thank you for reading and let me know what you think! Also, if you're interested in reading some more of my work I've got the first chapter of a Harry Potter fic that I'll be working on up along with the first couple of chapters of a Final Fantasy XV I'm also working on.**

 **Thanks again! -S.F.E.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hi there everyone! Your eyes aren't deceiving you I have indeed posted another chapter. Quick update I know. Anyway, here's chapter 6.**

 **Disclaimer: I don not own Naruto, AtLA, or probably anything that seems familiar.**

 **Thank you to all my readers and reviewers, and an especially big thank you to two of my most consistent reviewers, Thomas Drovin and Awesomeness3013. Y'all are the best!**

* * *

The next few weeks I, along with the rest of Team Seven, spent the majority of my days taking on various D-rank missions. We had pulled more weeds, fixed up some rooftops for people who caught the bad end of a storm, walked some of the Inuzuka dogs (though Kiba's mom never let our team on another one of those missions after Naruto let himself get dragged into a minefield by a pack of their biggest dogs), ran errands around the village for busy housewives, babysat bratty little kids, and even accompanied a group of elderly women to their cooking competition on the west side of the village to guard to them and their food entries from any attempts of sabotage. Apparently some of those old ladies liked to cheat.

Between missions, we trained. Sometimes we trained on our own, but sometimes we trained together too, even if the training session wasn't made mandatory by Kakashi. We were slowly but surely working to improve our teamwork. Now don't get me wrong, we all still fought like cats and dogs a lot of the time, but the fights weren't nearly as nasty as they once were.

Sakura and Sasuke still bugged the hell out of me from time to time but I was learning to get along with Sakura through all the time we spent together training and on missions. I was learning to read Sasuke better the more I got to know him, so I was better prepared for his extra moody days.

Sasuke still didn't really like us, but was learning to tolerate us. Well, tolerate Sakura and I anyway. He still had a problem putting up with Naruto for more than twenty minutes at a time, but it was progress!

Naruto was still loud, slightly annoying, and hard headed, but he was working really hard on his chakra control and was starting to at least think about analyzing a situation before rushing in which was something I guess.

Sakura and I had been training together so I knew she was getting better. She had gotten a little faster, stronger, and had gained more endurance in the few weeks we had trained together.

Overall, we were getting better in ability and in teamwork. Today, however, was not a training day but a mission day, and what a terrible mission it had been. We had been assigned to track down a cat for a noble woman. Sounds easy enough, right? Wrong. This cat was the cat from hell. It was smart and evaded us for two whole hours! If I didn't know it was just some rich lady's pet, I would have sworn the evil cat was a ninja cat or something. Needless to say, I was glad that we were at right this moment, presenting the cat back to the noblewoman who owned him.

"Oh! My precious baby, Tora!" the large lady squealed as she hugged the cat to her. I watched with a sadistic grin as the evil little feline tried to wiggle its way out of her grasp and failed.

"I'll be happy if I never see that cat again," I said as the rich lady with the cat sill firmly in her grasp left the room.

"You really don't like cats do you Sumiko-chan?" Sakura asked.

"I do not," I agreed before we turned our attention back to the Hokage.

"Now, for the next mission. We have babysitting Elder Hoshi's grandchildren," the Hokage said and I paled. Oh spirits please no. Not Kaoru and Hikaru. Anything but watching the devil children all afternoon again. "Fixing a fence near the river, going shopping for-"

"I want a real mission!" Naruto interrupted and my jaw dropped. Did Naruto really just interrupt Lord Hokage?

"Give us a real mission old man!" my blond teammate demanded as he crossed his arms over his chest in resolution.

Oh, boy. I mean I get where Naruto's coming from. I'd do practically anything to not have to watch those twins again, but we just became genin! All we were going to get was sucky D-ranks for at least another couple of months. What did he expect?

Iruka-sensei and the Hokage went on to give this speech about the different ranks of ninja and levels of mission work and so on and so forth. Naruto wasn't really paying attention and I really wasn't either. When Iruka-sensei called him out on not listening Naruto gave a speech about how he wasn't a little kid who did nothing but pull pranks anymore; which led Lord Hokage to decide to give us a C-rank mission. So I'd call that a win. Especially if it meant I didn't have to deal with the devil twins coming at me with scissors with the thought of cutting my hair and giving me a "makeover".

Though when I looked at the client we were supposed to protect, I might have just preferred looking after Hikaru and Kaoru. Our client, an old bridge builder named Tazuna, had just walked into the room and I could smell the old sake on him even from all the way across the room. Gross.

"A bunch of snot nosed kids are supposed to protect me?" was the first thing out of his mouth and I decided I liked him even less. He obviously didn't think us capable of protecting him. Tch, we're perfectly capable than protecting a drunk old man from bandits thank you very much. I don't see what his problem with us is.

Kakashi stepped up before any of the rest of us had a chance to say anything. "My team and I are more than capable of assuring your safety on this journey," Kakashi tried to reassure the grumpy old geezer who smelled like sake. Tazuna crossed his arms and huffed.

"Hmph. Fine, but I still don't like the look of that shrimpy one," he commented. At his words the four of us genin looked at each other curiously to see who exactly our client was talking about. Sasuke was the tallest, then came me and Sakura, seeing as I'm only about half an inch taller than she is. Having figured this out we all looked over to Naruto. He was the shortest and therefore the shrimpiest. After a few moments I think Naruto realized it too.

"Hey! What do you mean shrimpy?! I'm going to kill you!" Naruto yelled as he launched himself towards Tazuna. Kakashi stepped in once more and put Naruto in a headlock to stop him from doing something stupid, like attempting to attack our client again.

"Naruto, you little idiot, we don't try and kill our clients," Kakashi said nervously. Knowing him he was probably worried about the scolding he'd get from Lord Hokage. Judging from the Hokage's exasperated expression, Kakashi would probably get scolded. I sighed. An grumpy old man who smells like sake? And we're supposed to guard him all the way to Wave? We hadn't even left the village but I already knew this was going to be a mission I wouldn't forget.

* * *

It was a couple minutes until we were supposed to head out from the village main gates and we were only waiting on Kakashi and Tazuna who should be along shortly. I had to admit that I was pretty excited for this mission - gruff and smelly old client aside. I'd only been outside the village once before, but never as far as the Land of Waves.

"Do you think Kakashi-sensei will be late again, Sumiko?" Sakura asked.

I shook my head. "I highly doubt it. He's got our client with him, and the old guy seems like he's in a hurry. He'll probably nag Kakashi if they're late," I told her as I double checked my medical supplies. I may not have been a fully trained medic _here_ , but I had been back in The Northern water Tribe. As the only capable medic I felt responsible for the lives of my team, so I had to make sure I had everything I needed if something were to happen to any of them. Granted, this was only a C-rank and we were more than capable of dealing with any bandits we might encounter on the way, but hey, you never know.

"Oh man I'm so excited! I've never been outside the village before!" Naruto exclaimed happily as Tazuna and Kakashi approached our small group.

"I'm supposed to be able to believe that this bunch of brats can protect me? This one's never even been outside of the village!" Tazuna grumbled as he took a swig out of a little container he was holding. I couldn't help but roll my eyes. _Of course_ he brought sake with him. What would a journey on the road be without _sake_? I couldn't help but feel a little less excited for this mission.

"Don't worry, I'm an experienced jonin and am more than capable of protecting you should we run into any trouble along the way," Kakashi reassured our client, and as that conversation ended, we were finally off on our first C-rank mission.

We were a ways away from the walking down the path heading towards Wave when I noticed a puddle on the ground some several feet ahead of us. I decided to have a bit of fun playing with the water rather than listen to Tazuna's droning about how important it was for him to get back as soon as possible, but when I tugged at the puddle using my waterbending, nothing happened. I frowned. That was odd, every other puddle I've tried that on has never resisted before. As our group passed the weird puddle I scanned the area for more puddles to see if it was just that puddle, or if something was wrong with my bending. When I didn't see any other puddles that's when I realized that it hadn't rained in the area for weeks. Which meant that there wasn't anything wrong with my bending, it meant that that puddle wasn't a normal puddle of water.

All of a sudden we were being attacked. We learned in the Academy that on a C-rank mission one may come across bandits or thugs, but the people attacking us now were ninja. I quickly darted over and stood protectively in front of Tazuna with Sakura by my side in the same position. I let out a deep breath. Okay, Sumiko, your primary objective is to protect the client. Secondary objective is to evade enemy attacks and provide any medical backup.

I let out another breath and focused on the fight happening in front of us. There were two enemy ninja. Sasuke was fighting one of them off to our left and was doing rather well. I looked around for Naruto when out of the corner of my eye I saw the two ninja - when had that one guy managed to get away from Sasuke?- wrap a chain around Kakashi and pull it until he was nothing but chunks of chopped up flesh.

I saw red. I wanted to rush out there and join in the fighting but Kakashi's words rang in my head, " _As a capable medic we need you to stay out of danger. You need to learn to let your teammates take the offensive more often so you can hold on to your chakra for any medical emergencies that may arise."_

My eyes darted between the remnants of Kakashi and the fight between Sasuke and the two enemy ninja. I wanted their blood. I wanted them to pay for taking the closest thing I had to family away from me, but... Sasuke had it handled. As much as I wanted to, I know that I shouldn't interfere until it was absolutely necessary, and Sasuke was making it unnecessary. That was until the other ninja that Sasuke hadn't managed to catch with his razor wire headed our way. I popped the lid off of my water container and stepped in front of Sakura and Tazuna. I sent my water to wrap around the ninja's ankles and froze it, causing the ninja to trip and land face first on the ground as Sasuke rushed in front of us with his arms spread wide. He had been ready to take the attack the enemy would have delivered had he not been stopped.

As the ninja I had tripped began to try to get up Kakashi appeared above him and pushed his head back into the dirt with his foot. "Good job Sasuke, Sumiko, Sakura," he said nonchalantly. I left my position to run up to Kakashi and hug him.

"You're okay!" I cried in relief.

"Of course I am. You need to have a little more faith in me than that," Kakashi said as he ruffled my hair in the way he knew annoyed me. I huffed and began to fix my hair as Kakashi turned to look at Tazuna and the rest of Team Seven. Kakashi went on to question the old bridge builder on why he had chunin level Kirigakure missing-nin after him. After some stammering and attempts to avoid the subject, Tazuna finally told us the truth. He told us about how desolate the conditions in Wave were and how even their nobility was poor all thanks to a man named Gato and his thugs. Tazuna said that because of him their local economy had been ruined and that they couldn't afford to pay for anything higher than a C-rank mission; how the bridge he was going to build would help free their village from Gato's tyranny which is why Gato wanted him dead.

Kakashi and the rest of us - not including Naruto - were rather skeptical about continuing this mission after learning that the mission parameters had been falsified, but the old man played the guilt card on us, rather well I might add. He wove a sob story about him continuing on by himself only for him to be killed before he could reach the Land of Waves, and how in his death his daughter and young grandson would perish from their grief and they and the rest of the village would forever hate ninja from Konoha. So, here we all are getting ready to continue on this mission that was _just a smidgen_ over our pay grade.

"Naruto, your hand. Those ninja's weapons were coated in poison," Kakashi pointed out. I automatically moved towards Naruto while Sakura spoke.

"We should really take him back to the village. He needs immediate attention," Sakura said nervously. I could tell she was scared and had only really agreed to continue on with this mission because the rest of did. Even if we were starting to actually get somewhere in our training sessions that didn't mean that she was confident enough in her abilities to believe that she could hold her own in a battle against higher level enemy ninjas just yet.

Having heard that he had been poisoned, Naruto became frantic and sliced his hand open even more, allowing the poison to flow out of his bloodstream. That would have been a great idea and all, but now instead of death by poison, Naruto put himself at risk for death by blood loss.

"Naruto, you idiot. You got the poison out of your system, but now you could die from losing too much blood," I scolded as I started to bend water around my left hand. I wasn't completely confident in making sure there was no presence of poison in the blood with medical ninjutsu so I decided to use my waterbending. I'd rather be on the safe side when it came to my teammates.

"Ehh? What?! Somebody do something!" Naruto cried out in panic and then proceeded to run around like a headless chicken. Ugh, seriously, did Naruto ever stop moving?

"Will you stop running around and get over here so I can help you before you bleed out?!" I yelled impatiently. "Running around like a crazy person isn't helping you out any you know!" All his running around will accomplish would be an increase in his heart rate which in turn will cause his heart to pump blood faster, leading to even more blood spewing from his wound. Like Naruto could even afford to lose any more blood.

The hyperactive blond finally stopped his running around and stood in front of me. "Help me, Sumiko-chan!" Naruto cried out waving his injured hand around. I grabbed his wrist and brought my water coated hand up to the place of his injury. As my hand came into contact with Naruto's injury it began to glow a bright whitish blue.

"Wow, I've never seen a jutsu like that. What kind of jutsu is this, Sumiko-chan?" Sakura asked.

I ignored her question for the moment and concentrated on Naruto's wound. Something else was already at work healing Naruto's injuries. My healing really did nothing other than speed up the process. Naruto would have been just fine even if I hadn't done anything.

"All done," I smiled at Naruto.

"Thanks, Sumiko-chan."

I turned to Sakura so I could answer her question. "It's part of my kekkei genkai," I said simply, not wanting to get into the details of how.

"Oh, you mean like that whole controlling water and freezing everything thing?" Naruto asked.

I nodded. "Yup. Control over all things water is one part and healing using water is the other," I summed up and then turned to Kakashi. "We ready to get on with continuing this mission now?"

* * *

We were carrying on with our mission to escort Tazuna back to his home. Sakura was asking Kakashi about something up at the head of the traveling formation while Naruto was running around and exclaiming in excitement about how cool it was to be outside of the village, and how he would have such cool stories to tell when he got back. I'm pretty certain that he wasn't thinking about how likely it was that what happened on our mission would probably end up being classified since the parameters were false, and therefore, he would not be able to tell any cool stories about the enemies we've faced. But I'd let him have fun for now.

Our client, Tazuna, was shouting at Naruto, telling him to calm down since the hyperactive blond was starting to give him a headache. Personally, I thought his headache had less to do with Naruto's antics and more to do with the copious amounts of sake he had been drinking.

I smiled at the scene and closed my eyes for a moment as I felt a gentle breeze pass through. I opened my eyes and sighed. This was nice, but I have this feeling that the peace won't last. Those ninja we ran into earlier can't have been the only ones that Gato had access to. Kakashi had left the two we had run into tied up securely and had sent a message for some other Konoha ninja to pick them up. I'm sure someone was expecting them to check in at some point, and when they didn't someone else would probably get sent out to see what the problem was and finish the job. I let out a deep breath. I wonder if the others realize that. Kakashi I'm sure came to that conclusion way before I did, but some of the others might not have. I shook my head to clear those thoughts out of my mind. We'll deal with that when the time comes I suppose. Kakashi had to have had something planned.

I took off the lid of the container where I kept my bending water to see just how much I had to work with. I had a decent amount, but I'd want to gather some more soon.

"Those are the techniques you used during our match," a voice to my left stated. I glanced to the side and saw Sasuke walking alongside me. I blinked in surprise as I let the water fall back into its pouch. This was the first time he had spoke directly to me since we started this mission.

"Yeah," I answered plainly.

"Hn. I want a rematch."

I looked at him with a confused expression. "Huh? A rematch?"

"You caught me off guard last time. It won't happen again."

I smiled softly at that. I'm pretty sure that meant that he wouldn't underestimate me again in Sasuke speak. "I look forward to thoroughly kicking your butt, Sasuke," I said teasingly.

"Tch. You wish." he said with a twitch of his lips.

We continued to walk side by side in a comfortable silence when I had a thought. "Hey Sasuke?" I spoke.

He didn't say anything, but he looked at me to let me know he was listening. "You know how I agreed to tell you anything that you might be interested in?" I said quietly. "I don't think those ninja were the last ones we'll face on this mission, I'm sure that they had to check in with someone at some point. What happens when they don't show up? I don't know if I'm just being paranoid, but I'd rather be safe than sorry. So just stay on guard, okay?" I explained.

Sasuke looked at me intently for a few seconds before nodding. I nodded back and silence fell over us once more.

* * *

 **We have officially entered the Land of Waves Arc! Thank you all for reading and please leave a review to let me know what you think! Also, if you're interested in reading some of my other works I've got a couple other stories on my profile for you to check out. Thanks again! - S.F.E.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Here's chapter 7!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or AtLA or anything else you may recognize. I own only my OC.**

* * *

We had traveled further and were getting closer to the Land of Waves. After the debacle with those enemy ninja we were all on edge. None more visibly so than Naruto. He had been acting a lot more jumpy since our encounter with the Demon Brothers. He was darting back and forth, shouting more than usual, and attacking anything that moved. Frankly, he was starting to get really annoying. That's not to say, however, that the rest of us weren't more alert too.

Sakura was glancing around, scanning the area with a calm and slightly curious face. Sasuke had been keeping his hands near his weapons pouch at all times. As for myself, I had taken the cap off of my waterbending pouch and left it off, so I had easy access to some water if it became necessary. To civilians it would have looked like Sakura was taking in the local flora, that Sasuke had his thumbs hooked in his pockets because that's just the way he walked, and that I had just forgotten to put the lid back on my pouch. Kakashi wasn't showing any visible signs of worry, but he was a jonin so it wasn't a big surprise that me, a genin, couldn't tell if he was concerned or not.

This was supposed to be a C-class mission, meaning that the worst we should have run into is a couple of thugs or bandits. We had encountered a pair of chunin level enemy ninja. While taking on two chunin by himself is no problem for Kakashi, he wasn't alone. He had to look out for not only our client, Tazuna, but for the four of us genin as well. No matter how good we thought we were, we were genin fresh out of the Academy, and we still weren't completely solid on our teamwork yet. We may have scraped by with the Demon Brothers, but who knows what else - or more importantly _who_ else - we'll encounter.

"Gah!" Naruto yelled as he threw another one of his shuriken at one of the bushes. I was really beginning to wonder how many he had in his weapons pouch because this was the eighth one he had thrown, and he only went back to pick up a few of them.

"Naruto, quit throwing weapons at everything!" Sakura shouted as a white rabbit popped out of the bush that Naruto had thrown his shuriken at.

Oh, that poor, defenseless rabbit. It was probably so scared now an- wait. It's summer time. Why is it's coat white? That only happens in the winter, right? A wild rabbit's fur shouldn't be-

"Everybody down!" Kakashi ordered as he dropped to the ground, pulling Tazuna along with him. On command, I threw myself to the ground. Right after I hit the dirt I heard a heavy _swoosh_ or air zip right over where my head had just been. I watched with wide eyes as the biggest sword I have ever seen embedded itself in a tree a few meters ahead of our group.

Oh, man! That sword is freaking huge! Whoever's using that thing must be a giant in order to properly wield that thing. I, along with the rest of our little entourage stood up and stared at the giant sword in the tree. Seemingly out of nowhere, a tall muscular man whose hair was spiked and had a face covered in bandages landed on the handle of the enormous weapon.

He looked down at our group and as he stared at our sensei I could tell that he had dismissed Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and I and didn't consider us a threat. He was staring at Kakashi intently. Whoever this man was knew _exactly_ who Kakashi was and what he was capable of.

I looked at my teammates as discreetly as I could manage and motioned for them to move closer to Tazuna. If this bandage-face guy knew who Kakashi was and was still standing there confidently instead of running away, I was betting that he was way out of our league. Kakashi would deal with him, and us genin would focus on protecting our client.

Sakura seemed to be the only one to catch my message and began to cautiously move closer to Tazuna. Naruto wasn't paying attention. In fact, he was looking at our new opponent with determination clear in his eyes.

I paled at the sight. Oh, no. Naruto wasn't actually considering going up against this guy was he? We really didn't have any clear information about this guy yet, but based on the ever increasing sinking feeling I was getting in the pit of my stomach, it couldn't be anything good. It was never anything good.

Sasuke had gotten my message too, but quickly glanced at me before turning his attention back to Kakashi and the enemy ninja in front of us wearing a similar look on his face as Naruto. For real? Is he seriously ignoring me? What the freaking heck Uchiha?! I couldn't believe him. I mean, I would kind of expect this from Naruto because he's Naruto, but Sasuke's smarter than that, right? He does know that our primary objective is to protect the client, doesn't he? This is seriously not the time for another wave of all his 'I'm so much better than all of you' crap.

I let out a frustrated huff. That's it. I am officially on a team full of idiots. Sakura and I stood in defensive positions around Tazuna while the boys and Kakashi were more preoccupied with watching bandage-face.

Kakashi began to speak and take some steps forward. "Well, well, if it isn't Zabuza Momochi, a rouge ninja of Kirigakure," Kakashi said calmly.

Yup, I knew it. It was never good. I knew there was a reason for that sinking feeling. This guy is Zabuza freaking Momochi! He's killed hundreds of people before he even became a shinobi; he was one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Hidden Mist, and had garnered the title of "Demon of the Mist". This guy was a big time threat.

I glanced over to the boys of Team Seven again. Sasuke, while looking intrigued with Zabuza, didn't show any signs that he was going to do anything stupid. Naruto on the other hand, looked like he was ready to pick a fight with this guy the first chance he got. Not good. Definitely not good. The blond idiot was going to get himself killed if he thought he could take on Zabuza. He's at least an A-ranked threat in Konoha's bingo book, and we were genin. We wouldn't stand a chance against someone like him!

"Ahhh!" I watched in horror as Naruto yelled and began to charge at Zabuza. Oh spirits! What in the world is running through your thick head you little idiot?! Luckily, Kakashi stopped him before he could get very far.

"You're in the way," Kakashi spoke gravely. "Get back."

The laid back, relaxed, and somewhat lazy Kakashi that we were used to seeing everyday had disappeared. He stood up straighter and his voice was more stern. Kakashi was in mission mode right now. He had his opponent in front of him, and was ready to fight. Seriously fight, not the lazy movements he had used against us during training. Now, we'd get to see a taste of what Kakashi was really capable of. This both thrilled and worried me.

"But why?" Naruto asked, still not getting how this guy was so different than the other two ninja we had faced off against earlier on our journey.

"Because Naruto, he's not like those other ninja. He's in a whole other league. If he's going to be our opponent, I'm going to need this," Kakashi said sternly as he began to straighten out his hitai-ate, revealing not only a scar that ran down the center length of his eye and the areas around it, but also a crimson red Sharingan eye.

"Kakashi of the Sharingan eye. Did I get that right?" Zabuza mocked. He obviously knew that Kakashi was Kakashi. I stole a glance at Sasuke and saw him with clenched fists and a tense jaw, but other than that nothing. Good. That meant he was still focused. It was a real good thing Sasuke found out about Kakashi's Sharingan before today.

"You'll have to hand over the old man," Zabuza stated and I watched for any sort of signal or something. I knew that Kakashi wouldn't give up Tazuna to this guy, even if it did mean a fight would break out. Kakashi just wasn't that type of ninja. He wasn't that type of person. Tazuna had been placed under our care for the duration of this mission and Kakashi would make sure it stayed that way.

"Quick, Manji formation! Protect the bridge builder," Kakashi ordered. The four of us quickly moved into the formation that Kakashi had called out.

"Stay out of this fight," our silver haired leader said seriously. "I taught you all teamwork. Now it's time to use it."

"Well, it seems I get to the famous Sharingan in action. What an honor," Zabuza chuckled darkly.

Naruto let out a cry of frustration. "All I keep hearing is Sharingan, Sharingan, Sharingan. I've heard it here and back in the village. Will someone please tell me what the heck the Sharingan even is?!"

Sasuke was quick to speak up and answer Naruto's question. "The Sharingan is the rare ability that resides in the eyes, a dojutsu. A person in possession of this dojutsu is able to instantly see and comprehend any genjutsu, ninjutsu, or taijutsu and reflect it back to their opponent. The Sharingan is a very special and rare kekkei genkai. However, there is a lot more to the Sharingan than just that. _A lot_ more," Sasuke explained.

"You've got that right, boy, but I'd suspect nothing less from one of the only two surviving members of the Uchiha," Zabuza directed at Sasuke, and the rage in Sasuke's eyes was more intense than I'd ever seen it, "but you only just scratched the surface. The Sharingan is able to analyze an opponent's technique and then copy it down to the smallest of details."

How did Zabuza even know that Sasuke was an Uchiha? Ah, that's right, because Sasuke goes around wearing a huge Uchiha symbol on the back of his shirt. He really needs to wear something different. I get having pride for your clan and all, - I men, I have a huge water tribe symbol on the back of my jacket - but that huge red and white fan on his back may as well be a target for anyone looking to get their hands on the last Uchiha and his eyes. He may not have an active Sharingan at the moment, but potential was always there.

Suddenly, a thick fog began to overtake the area. What?! When did this happen?! I didn't even see him weave any hand signs! Either he moved too fast for me to see, or he doesn't need them to perform this jutsu. Either way, this was bad.

I watched helplessly as the thick blanket of hazy white mist began to consume the entirety of the once clear surroundings. Soon enough I couldn't see Kakashi, Tazuna, or any of my teammates. Heck, I could barely see a foot in front of me. This was not good. Not good at all. If I couldn't see, I was basically a sitting duck. I relied on my vision for practically everything. I didn't have a strong enough chakra sense to be able to pinpoint where each person was without having to sit still and put my complete focus on that. Nor did I have a heightened sense of smell or hearing like members of the Inuzuka clan. I was basically useless, and I was beginning to freak out. I _do not_ like this feeling of uselessness. I don't know how to handle this type of situation! What do I do? What _can_ I do? How will I-

"Sumiko!" I heard Kakashi's voice call through the thick mist. "I need you to focus, Sumiko. Do you think you can get rid of this?" he asked.

I took a deep breath and began to calm myself down. Now was not the time for a panic attack. Okay, focus. What did Kakashi mean by get rid of this? How could I - oh. Duh. I am a _water_ bender and all this foggy mist stuff is made of _water_. In theory, I should be able to disperse it. I still have a difficult time tearing apart jutsu that were in the process of being used, especially higher level jutsu, and there was no guarantee that I could get rid of this mist. But I had to try.

Right, okay. Let's do this. I took another deep breath and held my arms out in front of me. I lightly tugged on the water that made up this mist with my bending. I could feel the resistance from what I was pretty sure was bits of Zabuza's chakra throughout the mist, but I tugged harder and I could feel the water particles of the mist to begin to gather and form a blob of water that hovered in the air. Fighting against Zabuza's chakra was taxing, and I could begin to feel the toll it was taking on me. I didn't want to waste all my energy before the fight even started, so I stopped. I hadn't been able to fully get rid of the mist, but at least we could see somewhat clearly now.

"What's this now? You seem to have some interesting students, Kakashi. Tell me girl, who are you?" Zabuza asked.

Awesome. Just great. You go and give everyone some visibility, but then you go and draw Zabuza Momochi's attention to you.

"Leave my students out of this," Kakashi said darkly.

Zabuza chuckled. "But why should I? It's obvious she's a natural water user. If she can pull apart my jutsu like that, she clearly has potential. Potential that's wasted in the Land of _Fire_ ," he paused and turned his gaze to me. "I could use a new apprentice. Sumiko, is it? I could teach you many things Konoha ninja would never be able to. You have potential. Under my teachings you could become great," he offered.

"Leave Sumiko out of this," Kakashi said with venom in his voice.

"Why not let the girl answer for herself, Kakashi?"

I could feel the collective gaze of my teammates on me. I glanced at them to see Naruto and Sakura looking at me with worried expressions. I blinked in surprise. They didn't actually think that I would accept this guy's offer, did they? Did they really think so little of me that they would believe that I would abandon the village, abandon them to go and train under Zabuza Momochi? That would really hurt, if that's what was running through their heads as they stared at me like that.

I turned back to Zabuza when he spoke again. "What do you say, girl? Are you willing to become my apprentice?"

I scrunched my nose at the nuke-nin's offer. _Please,_ like I would actually leave Konoha, leave my home, my friends, my family, for power. I mean it was kind of cool - in a sort of frightening way - that a shinobi like Zabuza would take interest in my abilities, but seriously, who did this guy think I was? Some sort of power hungry idiot? I can get stronger without the help of some rogue ninja, thank you very much. Besides, I highly doubt he had any experience in training a waterbender.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid I'll have to reject your offer. I belong in Konoha," I answered.

Zabuza scoffed, "Pathetic. Just like the rest of you Leaf rats."

"Quit pestering my students, Momochi. Your fight is with me," Kakashi said, drawing Zabuza's attention back to him and away from us.

"Very well. Did you know that in the assassination unit of Kirigakure, we had orders to destroy you on sight?" Zabuza spoke. "We had your profile in our bingo books. They had you labeled as the man who copied over one thousand jutsu, Kakashi: the Copycat Ninja.

It was pretty cool that our sensei was a famous ninja renowned for his abilities, but at the same time it was worrying. It meant that Kakashi had a large target on his head. It also meant that once word got around that Sharingan no Kakashi had taken up a team of genin, enemies might try to use us against him.

"Now that's enough talk," Zabuza said. "I need to exterminate the old man. _Now_!" he said viciously as he slid down into a crouching position on the handle of his oversized sword.

Tazuna let out a frightened cry, and in a swift reaction, the four of us genin pulled out our kunai knives and slid into a defensive stance around the old bridge builder. In a flash, Zabuza effortlessly pulled his massive sword out of the tree trunk and jumped away to a different location. It took us a few seconds to figure out where he had gone.

"He's over there!" Naruto shouted.

"He's standing on the water," Sakura added.

I looked at Naruto and followed his gaze to see that Zabuza was indeed standing on the water. Oh man! How did he do that?! I wasn't talking about the water walking thing, that was a chakra control trick that the majority of us had mastered not too long ago - Naruto was still a little shaky on staying on top of the water for long periods of time though. What I meant was, how did he get all the way over there without even making a sound?!

I watched as Zabuza raised one arm straight up in the air and held his other arm close to him with his hand laying by his lips in the form of a seal. I didn't have to be a sensor to know that he was gathering up large amounts of his chakra. I could feel it in the air, and the water around him was beginning to swirl.

"Ninja art: Hidden Mist Jutsu," Zabuza called out.

Like before, the air around us turned into a thick blanket of heavy mist. Unlike before, there was still a slight degree of visibility. The only thing that wasn't visible was Zabuza. He had vanished.

"Sensei," Sakura called to Kakashi. The look on her face showed that she was worried. She wasn't sure what to do and was looking to Kakashi for guidance.

"He'll go after me first," Kakashi said.

"But sensei, who is he?" Sakura asked.

I couldn't help but let out a sigh. You know, Sakura is supposed to be the brightest kunoichi of our year in terms of academics and studies. She had never gotten a question wrong on any written exam and she had had all the shinobi rules memorized before she even started at the Academy. With all that knowledge one would think that she would have thought to pick up a copy of one of our bingo books at the Mission's Office and familiarize herself with some of the ninja in it. Heck, that's one of the first things Anko had taught me once I entered my final year at the Academy. I'm sure that Ino and Hinata at least know about some of the ninja like Zabuza too.

' _You're forgetting,'_ a little voice in my head reminded, ' _that Sakura doesn't come from a strong shinobi background.'_

Oh, yeah. That's right. She wouldn't have been educated in those types of shinobi things. With a quick glance to both Naruto and Sasuke, I realized that none of them really had any of the extra shinobi info that came from living with high ranked ninja like Kakashi. Sasuke would have when he was little, but... then the massacre happened.

I hadn't really realized up until this point that I was extremely lucky and privileged to have Kakashi as a guardian. I never realized how much I had learned from him and his colleagues, even if they were just little things.

"Sumiko, are you paying attention?" Kakashi called.

"Hmm? I'm sorry, what?" I said as I was drawn out of my thoughts once more. Man, that was happening a lot lately. I need to focus on what's going on now and stop going off into my own head.

"What?! Were you really not paying attention, Sumiko-chan?" Naruto asked in surprise.

"Sumiko!" Sakura began to scold, "Kakashi sensei just finished telling us all about our enemy. Zabuza Momochi, he-"

"He was the leader of the assassination unit when he was still in Kiri. He's a master of the silent killing technique, meaning he can kill someone without them even noticing until they're already dead. He's known as the Demon of the Mist. He's ruthless and bloodthirsty. He once killed an entire year of Academy students before he was even a genin. He wields Kubikiribocho, and is one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. I already know," I said cooly.

Sakura looked startled at the amount of information I had just spurted out. "How-how did you know all of this already?" she asked, but I ignored her question and looked at Kakashi for instructions.

"The Sharingan cannot fully negate this technique, so be on your guard," Kakashi warned us.

I collected water from the surrounding area and it coiled around my arm like a snake. It would be there if I needed it, but I'd use actual steel first. Like the rest of my teammates, I raised my kunai back into a defensive position.

"Well, if we fail, we only lose our lives," Kakashi said with a sigh.

"How can you say that?!" Sakura cried. I shrugged my shoulders in response to her and Kakashi's words.

"Ehh, there are things worse than death," I said nonchalantly and my teammates and Tazuna looked at me like I was crazy.

"What? It's true," I told them, and it was true. I had spent enough time around Anko, who works primarily in T&I, and have heard enough stories to know that there _were_ things worse than death.

Once again, the mist began to get thicker and thicker. I tried to disperse it again, but Zabuza had put more chakra into the jutsu and I couldn't pull this mist apart like I had the last one.

"Sumiko, do something!" Naruto said.

I grit my teeth and pulled harder. I was met with a strong resistance from Zabuza's immense amounts of chakra. "I'm trying, Naruto, but I can't! He's put more chakra into it, and I can't pull apart higher level jutsu!" I told him as I still kept trying to tear at the mist.

"Sensei!" I heard Sakura cry out in fear.

"Agh! Come on you stupid mist! You're made of water, so why can't I control you!" I grumbled in frustration as I tried my hardest to get the mist to bend to my will.

"Sumiko, stop." I glanced at Sasuke seeing as he was the one who spoke to me just now.

"You're just wasting energy. Save it for something else," he told me. I sighed and dropped my arms back down into a defensive stance. Sasuke was right. If I couldn't pull apart his jutsu it would be best to save my energy for something else.

It was quiet for a few moments as the mist continued to thicken. The, suddenly, from somewhere out in the mist, Zabuza spoke. "Eight points. Larynx, spine, liver, jugular, subclavian artery, kidneys, heart. Now which one will be my attack point?" he said with a villainous chuckle.

The, as if being toyed with by Zabuza wasn't enough, this strong, overwhelming suffocating feeling filled the air. It felt like I couldn't move, like I couldn't even breathe! I had never before in my life felt such an intensely dark and smothering feeling such as this.

All of a sudden, my stomach lurched and I felt like I was going to be sick. Oh, spirits of the moon and ocean, what was this feeling? I mean, I've felt killer intent before from Anko, but never at this high level! Was this what a battle between jonin was like? Was it so intense that the very air around them was affected?

"Sasuke! Calm down!" Kakashi ordered.

I snapped out of my trance and turned to Sasuke. I looked with wide eyes as I saw him with both hands gripped tightly around his kunai, ready to strike. The tip of the blade was poised right at his sternum. My mind blanked momentarily. He wasn't actually thinking of committing suicide was he?! That would be insane!

"I'll protect you with my life. _All_ of you," Kakashi reassured us. "I will not allow my comrades to die. Trust me."

That's right. It's not just the four of us and the old man, Kakashi is here too. He's ex ANBU. We stand a pretty good chance at survival with Kakashi with us. That suffocating feeling of fear and despair began to fade from my mind.

I glanced at Sasuke and saw that he seemed to be doing better now as well. His kunai knife was back in it's defensive position and no longer perched to strike himself.

After seeing that Sasuke was no longer suicidal, I looked at Sakura and Naruto. Sakura looked frightened, but I knew that she wasn't dumb or reckless enough to try anything stupid. Naruto looked frightened too, but I could tell that he was trying to hide it.

Finally, I looked at Tazuna, our client, the man we were hired to protect. He looked scared stiff. The color had left his tan cheeks, leaving him pale and looking almost lifeless. I turned my gaze back to the front and tried to see if I could somehow locate Zabuza in this mist.

"I wouldn't go making promises like that," Zabuza spoke and my stomach lurched once more. That voice sounded like it was coming from right behind us. Not good. I could now feel Zabuza standing in the middle of our formation.

In less than two seconds, Kakashi had spun around and launched himself at Zabuza, driving him further into the clearing and away from Tazuna and us genin. We all watched as Kakashi thrust his kunai into Zabuza's abdomen only to see clear liquid water come out instead of blood.

"Sensei, behind you!" Naruto called out in warning as the water clone melted away and the real Zabuza launched his attack.

I frowned. I know Kakashi said to stay out of this fight. I also knew that as team medic I shouldn't go rushing head first into combat situations, but I just had to do something! The water I had coiled around my arms unwound itself as I willed it into a whiplike form using my bending.

"Sumiko, no!" Kakashi ordered as he continued his fight with Zabuza. "I need you to save your energy. We'll need your abilities if anything happens to anyone. Leave him to me." he told me.

I nodded sharply and wrapped the water around my arms once more. Kakashi's right, if anyone were to get seriously injured it would be up to me to help them. I was the closest thing my team had to a medical ninja. I need to focus on that role, and quit trying to put myself on the front lines.

We watched on as Zabuza and Kakashi fought. They went back and forth. Each dealing a blow and then dodging one. Finally, Zabuza found an opening and using the handle of his giant sword, Kubikiribocho, he thrust it into Kakashi's abdomen and sent our sensei flying through the air. He landed on a large pond of water and Zabuza followed Kakashi into the water.

"Sensei!" Naruto cried out in worry.

"I-I can't believe that Kakashi-sensei just got kicked into the air like that." Sakura whispered.

"Calm down you two. Kakashi will be just fine." _I hope_. I watched as Kakashi's head popped out of the water. He lifted his arm and stared at it. My eyes narrowed at his actions. "Something's wrong," I said to nobody in particular.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked. I shot a quick glance to him before looking back at Kakashi.

"He should have been out of the water by now. Kakashi wouldn't stay in there long knowing that Zabuza has an affinity for water," I said as I tried to scan Kakashi at a distance for any visible injuries. He didn't seem hurt, so it must be something else then.

In a flash, Zabuza appeared behind Kakashi with his hands already forming a seal. Zabuza's hands wove quickly through a series of hand signs. "Water Prison Jutsu!" Momochi shouted.

"Kakashi!" I yelled out in fear as I watched our silver haired jonin become trapped in the large water prison.

"This prison is made of water, but it's harder than steel. Kind of hard to fight back when you can't even move, isn't it Kakashi?" Zabuza chuckled. "I'll finish you off later, but first I'm afraid your little comrades must be eliminated." Zabuza said as he kept his right arm in the water prison jutsu and used his left arm to create another hand sign.

Oh, man. He can effectively use hand signs with only one hand?! Only the super elite were able to manage that. We are in some serious trouble. I watched as Zabuza created another clone with his one handed seal. Crap, crap, crap. We need a plan and we need a plan _now_. I turned to my teammates to see them freaking out too, when Zabuza spoke once more.

"You think wearing a headband makes you a ninja? When you have hovered between the plains of life and death so many times that the experience no longer phases you, then you _may_ be worthy of being called a ninja," Zabuza told us. "When you have become so deadly that you have earned a place in the bingo books of the great ninja villages, then you may have earned the title of ninja," he continued while creating another seal with his left hand.

Aw man, don't tell me he's making _another_ water clone.

"To call whiny little brats like yourselves ninja? That's nothing but a joke. You're pathetic."

Once again, Zabuza disappeared into the mist. Oh, man. I'm really starting to get why he's regarded as the Demon of the Mist. You never know where he could be once he shrouds himself in the mist.

Water clone Zabuza appeared before Naruto and my blond teammate fell back in surprise. As Naruto fell to the ground, his hitai-ate slipped off and the water clone of Zabuza snatched it away from him. The clone then dropped the piece of cloth and metal that bore the insignia of Konohagakure to the ground and stepped on it, grinding Naruto's headband deeper into the mud with the bottom of his shoe.

"You all aren't ninja. You're just a bunch of children," the former Kiri shinobi sneered.

"Naruto!" Sakura cried out in worry and even Sasuke had a concerned look on his face. Damn it! Naruto needs to get away from that water clone, and quick! I stretched out my left arm and the coil of water I had wrapped around it shot out to encircle Naruto's waist and pull him back closer towards us, and away from Zabuza's water clone.

"Listen!" Kakashi called from within the water prison, his voice sounding strained and distorted. "Take the bridge builder and run. You _can't_ win this fight. He's using most of his chakra to keep me in this prison. The water clone can't follow you very far, now run!" he ordered.

Wait, _what_? I stared at Kakashi in disbelief. He didn't actually expect us to leave him here, did he? What happened to the whole "those who abandon their friends are worse than scum" thing he had been drilling into our heads since we first became a team? He was asking us to leave him here, and I don't know about the others, but I can't do that! I refuse. Kakashi is the closest thing I have to real family in this place, and I am _not_ going to just abandon him!

I looked over to my teammates to see if I could gauge what they were thinking about this whole situation. Naruto seemed to still be in a state of shock. He still hadn't gotten up off of the ground after Zabuza's water clone had taken his headband. Sakura was looking at us with a scared look on her face. She caught my gaze and looked to me with pleading eyes.

My eyes shot up in surprise. She was looking to _me_ for direction? Why me? I turned away from her piercing gaze. I didn't have the answers she was looking for. Heck, I didn't even have the answers I was looking for. I had no clue how we were supposed to take this guy down.

I turned to Sasuke and I stared at him intently. He was thinking hard about something. I could see it in his eyes that he was focused. Hopefully, he was thinking up some sort of plan because we needed one. Badly. "We've got to do it," he said seriously before charging at the water clone.

That's not what I had in mind when I said I hoped he was thinking of some sort of plan, but at least he's trying something I guess? That's more than I could say for myself, so I watched as Sasuke went after the Zabuza clone with a bunch of shuriken. The water clone swung at Sasuke with his sword, and Sasuke leapt above him in attempt to gain an opening from above. It didn't work. The water clone snatched him out of the air and grabbed him by the throat.

"Sasuke, no!" Sakura cried.

"Oh, ma. He got Sasuke!" Naruto said in disbelief.

I watched as Sasuke struggled to get free from the Zabuza clone's grip. He clawed at the water clone's arm in a desperate attempt to escape. As I noticed his face start to turn blue something in me snapped. Using the water from the surrounding area, I formed two large pillars. I flicked my fingers and the water turned to ice. One after the other, I sent razor sharp discs of ice flying from the ice pillars. I watched as the frozen discs severed the arm of the water clone that had been holding Sasuke.

Sasuke gasped for air and dropped to the ground. Once he was out of the clone's grasp, I sent more of the sharp ice discs at the water clone. Some of the ice managed to sever another limb but most of them just embedded themselves somewhere into the clone. I watched in horror though, as the water clone absorbed the discs and used the water from them to replace the limbs I had managed to cut off.

"Damn it," I whispered under my breath. If this thing absorbs water then what the heck can I do to help stop it?!

The real Zabuza chuckled. "Nice try girly, but that's not going to work," he taunted and I grit my teeth at his words. We'll find some way to get rid of this stupid clone. We have to.

"Sure you don't want to reconsider joining me? I'll spare your life and take you on as my apprentice. I sense a killer instinct in you. I can help it grow, teach you how to make the most out of it," he offered once more.

"Aghh!" I shouted in frustration. Stupid freaking nuke-nin! "Will you please just leave me the hell alone?!" I said as I sent an ice disk hurling towards the real Zabuza, but his clone stopped my attack before it even got close. Like hell I was going to leave the place I've come to call home and the people I've grown to care about to go with some stupid bandage-faced missing ninja. I don't care how strong he is, I'm not leaving.

I heard Naruto cry out in pain and I quickly looked to him to see what was wrong. He was staring at the bandaged hand he had injured earlier when facing the Demon Brothers, and my mind went into medic mode trying to figure out what might have caused him to cry out. What's wrong with him? Did his wound open back up? Did he cut himself again? Was there some sort of delayed reaction poison that I didn't pick up on?

Naruto stared at his hand and then a look of realization crossed his face. What are you thinking about Naruto? I watched as Naruto got up slowly and stared at Zabuza's water clone's right foot with a determined look on his face. My face scrunched up in confusion. Why is Naruto staring at the clone's feet? I squinted my eyes and looked closer at his feet and saw the faint glint of shining metal.

Oh, his headband. Naruto let out a loud battle cry, and charged at the Zabuza clone. "Naruto, no!" Kakashi shouted.

"Ahh! Naruto, you idiot! What in the world do you think you're doing?!" Sakura screeched as she pulled down on her cherry blossom pink hair out of worry and stress. Oh jeez, Naruto. _Please_ have some sort of plan.

Despite the warnings of Kakashi and Sakura, Naruto charged on only to get kicked in the face by Zabuza's clone. I watched on with frantic eyes as Naruto came crashing down back towards us. Droplets of blood flew threw the air alongside him as he fell. Crap, he's bleeding! I ran over to him when he landed face down on the ground. Hopefully it's just a bloodied nose or something else that's not too major. I'm really hoping he didn't get hurt too badly.

"What were you thinking, charging at him like that?" Sakura scolded. "Not even Sasuke could get to him. We're only genin. How did you ever possibly think you could beat a jonin like that? What did you think you could accomplish?!"

I shook my head and let out a sigh. I knew that Sakura meant well and that she kind of did have a valid point, but now is really not the time for a lecture. Besides, Naruto _did_ manage to accomplish something.

I knelt down beside the injured blond. "Naruto-kun, are you okay? Do you have any injuries that need immediate medical attention?" I asked, but I received no answer.

I watched on with wide eyes as Naruto shakily tried to stand up. I could tell he was struggling, so I tried to lend him a hand. As I helped him into a crouching position I caught a glimpse of the hitai-ate Naruto held in his bandaged hand. I couldn't help but smile at that. Naruto may have gotten himself beat up, but he still got what he wanted. He accomplished his goal. As Naruto struggled to stand, I asked him once more if he was in need of medical attention.

"Maybe later, Sumiko-chan," Naruto replied, and a look of pure determination set itself upon his face as he stared at Zabuza.

"Hey, you! The guy with no eyebrows," Naruto called out. "Put this in your bingo book. The ninja who will become the Hokage of Konohagakure," he paused to take a breath and quickly tie his headband back on. "He _never_ gives up, and never backs down. His name is Naruto Uzumaki!" he said confidently.

I smiled at Naruto's words. It was his dream to become Hokage, and seeing that fire in his eyes I knew that somehow he would become the Hokage one day. I didn't know when or how, but I knew deep down that Naruto Uzumaki would one day become the Hokage of Konohagakure. He wouldn't settle for anything less.

"Hey, Sasuke!" Naruto called out to our Uchiha teammate who was a few paces behind him. "Can you hear me, because I've got a plan," Naruto said with a confident grin.

"Yeah, I hear you. So you've got a plan, huh? Finally thinking about teamwork are you?" Sasuke said with a smirk and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Was he not the one who just charged at Zabuza's water clone by himself just a few minutes earlier?

I stepped back towards Sakura and Tazuna. Something told me that I wouldn't be needed for this plan, so I moved out of their way. I watched as Naruto wiped the blood off of his face. "Alright guys, let's go wild!" he exclaimed.

"What are you doing? Take off already! This fight was over the moment I got caught. Your mission is to protect the bridge builder, not prove how brave you can be! Stay on mission! Now go!" Kakashi ordered and I could hear the concern in his voice. I knew that Kakashi wanted us to be safe, but I sure as hell wasn't going to flee and leave him behind.

Naruto turned to Tazuna. "Bridge builder?" he asked and Tazuna nodded in response.

"This all happened to you all because of me. But now... forget about me. You do what you have to to save your sensei," the old man told us.

"You heard the man. Sorry Kakashi, but running away and leaving you behind? Not gonna happen," I said.

"Sumiko, don't be an idiot. You know what will happen if you all stay. Get out of here!" Kakashi responded and I narrowed my eyes at his words.

"What's the first lesson you taught us when we first became a team, Kakashi- _sensei_?" I asked him. "Those who break the rules are scum," I started.

" _But those who abandon their friends are worse than scum,_ " the four of us genin finished in unison.

"We aren't going to leave you behind, Kakashi," I said sternly as I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Alright, you hear that?" Sasuke said confidently.

"Yeah, believe it. You ready?' Naruto added as the two boys of Team Seven slipped into an offensive stance.

Zabuza began to laugh. Not a deep chuckle like he had been doing earlier in our encounter, but an actual laugh with shaking shoulders and everything. It really got me angry. "You all haven't learned anything, have you? You're still just a bunch of babies playing ninja. When I was your age, I had already destroyed numerous opponents," Zabuza said.

I heard Tazuna gasp in surprise, but I just steeled my gaze. I knew this already. He had wiped out an entire class of Academy students in Kiri just because he felt like it. It was a bloodbath, even for a village already nicknamed the Bloody Mist. Kirigakure changed the way the ran things after Zabuza went through. Kiri already had death matches between students as their graduation test, but Zabuza had caused enough destruction for Kiri to change their ways.

All of a sudden, the clone attacked. He kicked Naruto out of the way, then went after Sasuke. Zabuza's clone launched Sasuke into the air with a kick and blood came spewing out of his mouth. Crap. Not good. I pray to the spirits that that kick hadn't caused any internal injuries.

As Sasuke fell closer to the ground, Zabuza raised his right leg and smashed him into the ground. Sasuke let out a cry of pain when Zabuza mercilessly stepped on his abdomen, causing more blood to gush out.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out. Crap. I definitely feel like that caused some bad damage. Thankfully, Naruto then created a bunch of shadow clones and surrounded Zabuza's water clone. All at once, Naruto and all of his shadow clones attacked the water clone Zabuza. I moved to try and get close to Sasuke to look over and heal his injuries, but said boy held his arm out to stop me.

"No. Sumiko, stay back. I'm fine. Stay with Sakura and protect Tazuna," Sasuke spoke. I stared at him doubtfully for a while, but then moved back to Sakura and Tazuna. I had to learn to trust my teammates. I stood back and watched Naruto's shadow clones jump on the Zabuza clone to create this massive dog-pile, but then the enemy clone, in a burst of strength, sent them all flying.

One by one, the clones began to disappear until there was just Naruto left. He pulled a special type of large shuriken out of his backpack and threw it to Sasuke. It made sense. Sasuke was the best with weapons on our team after all. With a shout of "Demon Wind Shuriken: Windmill of Shadows!" Sasuke threw the bulky ninja tool straight towards Zabuza. Not the water clone Zabuza, but the _actual_ Zabuza.

I thought it was a good idea, but Zabuza will still probably reflect that with no problem. From beside me I could hear Sakura's high pitched squeal. She was no doubt in the middle of a fangirl moment.

Sakura, Tazuna, and I watched on as the shuriken got closer to Zabuza only for him to catch it with his free hand like it was nothing. Darn, it was a good idea that was worth a shot, but - whoa! In the shadow of the first shuriken another shuriken was hiding underneath. Now _that_ was a good plan. The second shuriken was heading straight for Zabuza and looked like it would actually hit, until he jumped over it.

"I told you," Zabuza began, "you can't touch me with a simple shuriken." I gasped as I noticed the second shuriken head back towards Zabuza in the way a boomerang would. How in the world? As it backtracked towards Zabuza, it exploded in a cloud of smoke only to reveal - Naruto?!

Naruto launched a kunai at Zabuza from behind. "Take this!" he shouted. Oh, wow! I couldn't believe this was happening! Naruto's plan was working brilliantly! It was amazing! He might actually pull this off!

I watched with eager eyes as Naruto's kunai drew closer and closer to Zabuza as a thought came to me. Oh! Zabuza won't be able to dodge it without moving his arm! His jutsu will break! And indeed, Zabuza had to release his hold on the water prison jutsu giving Kakashi a chance to get free.

"Yes!" I shouted excitedly, thrusting my fist into the air. "You did it! Way to go Naruto!" I cheered.

"Good job, Naruto, that was an excellent plan. You too Sasuke, good job," Kakashi praised the two boys.

I could easily tell that Naruto was ecstatic by the look on his face. Naruto then began to tell all about his plan and how he transformed into a shuriken, how Sasuke pulled out his own shuriken to hide him, and all the other little details that made his plan a success.

While I didn't mind listening to how Naruto pulled off his awesome plan, I would prefer it if he told us while he wasn't in the water just a few feet away from Kakashi and Zabuza. Once Naruto finally finished speaking I chimed in.

"Naruto, that's really great and I'm really proud of you guys for managing to pull this off and all, but will you _please_ get out of that water already?! Or so help me I will go and get you out of there myself!" I shouted to the blond boy. It was really stressing me out how Naruto was still in the same pond Kakashi had gotten himself trapped in. I didn't want anything bad to happen to Naruto.

"Eh he he, sorry, Sumiko-chan," Naruto laughed nervously as he started to swim to shore. Suddenly, the two jonin took off and began to weave an intricate series of hand signs at an incredibly fast pace. I could see large waves of water begin to churn up from behind both jonin. Damn, Naruto was going to get caught in the middle of whatever they were about to do if I didn't hurry.

"Sumiko, get him out of there!" Sasuke ordered as he and Sakura fell into twin defensive stances in front of Tazuna.

I nodded. "Already on it." I stretched out my arms and in a sweeping motion used a large amount of water around Naruto to pull him back to the rest of his team and away from the fighting jonin.

We watched as Kakashi and Zabuza used the Water Dragon jutsu. The force of the two water dragons clashing was so much that giant waves were being sent our way, but I couldn't help but marvel at the sight. The Water Dragon Jutsu was certainly a work of art. I wonder if I could replicate that form without having to learn the jutsu?

As the others braced themselves for the huge rush of water, I stepped out in front of Tazuna and my teammates. In an outward "X" type of motion I threw out my arms and stopped the rushing water from hitting us. I instead redirected it out sideways using my bending.

After the water had passed us, I slid back into position and focused my attention back to the jonin fight going on in front of us. Kakashi was moving at the same time and making the same actions as Zabuza did, down to the last details. Finally, Kakashi used the giant Vortex jutsu and sent Zabuza underneath the water in a giant whirlpool. As Zabuza shakily arose from the watery remains of Kakashi's jutsu, Kakashi pinned him to a nearby tree with a number of kunai knives.

Zabuza looked up at Kakashi, who was now perched on one of the higher branches of the tree, with eyes wide with fear. "But... how? Can you... see into the future?" he asked Kakashi. His fear was portrayed through his every word. Zabuza was _afraid_.

Kakashi looked down at Zabuza from the corners of his eyes. "Why yes, yes I can," he stated and I could hear the sarcastic edge in his voice. I don't think he could really see into the future, even if he was in possession of the Sharingan. "This will be your last battle ever," Kakashi said darkly.

Out of nowhere i heard the sharp whizzing sound of metal, and suddenly two senbon needles had found their way into Zabuza's neck, sending the large jonin level shinobi tumbling down. I gasped and so did the rest of my teammates. What had just happened? Where did those senbon come from? Who else is out here? What the heck is going on _now_?!

A mysterious figure in a mask that signified a tracker-nin appeared in a tree. The masked ninja laughed quietly and said, "You were right. This was his last battle."

Kakashi jumped down and checked for a pulse on Zabuza's body. After sensing no signs of life, Kakashi stood and faced the masked ninja who had appeared before us. Whoever this ninja was, bowed.

"Thank you," the masked shinobi or kunoichi, I really wasn't sure which, said. "I've been tracking Zabuza for a long time now. I needed this chance to finally take him down," the ninja said politely.

Kakashi stared at the tracker ninja as if checking for any signs of suspicion. "I can tell by your mask that you're a tracker ninja from Kirigakure," he stated and the tracker nodded in confirmation.

"You're well informed."

"Wait a minute!" Naruto exclaimed as he hastily slid onto the scene. "A tracker! He could be another enemy!" I sighed and shook my head. Did he even know what a tracker-nin was?

"Naruto, calm down will you? You don't even know what a tracker does. You skipped that lesson, just like most of the others," Sakura said. "A tracker ninja, or just simply a tracker, is a special type of ninja. They play a special role in their village," she explained.

"Yeah, Sakura's right," I started. "You won't see your run-of-the-mill shinobi or kunoichi in these specialty slots. Trackers, like hunters are ninja with an exemplary ability to sniff out other ninja. Usually they have some sort of chakra sense or other natural heightened tracking ability. These ninja spend most of their time outside of the village tracking down rogue ninja and disposing of their target. They ensure that the secrets of their village remain secret," I finished explaining as I stared at the ninja in the mask.

"You are correct," the tracker-nin spoke. "I am a member of the tracker corps of Kirigakure. It was my job to dispose of Zabuza Momochi." Naruto looked back and forth between Zabuza's corpse and the tracker ninja several times before he finally said something.

"Just who do you think you are?!" Naruto shouted angrily.

"Easy, Naruto. He's not our enemy," Kakashi spoke calmly in attempt to pacify the angry Uzumaki. Oh, so I guess this ninja is a boy after all.

"But Kakashi-sensei! Zabuza was this great, huge, monster and this kid took him down like it was nothing! Even _you_ were having trouble fighting him!" Naruto exclaimed.

Kakashi placed his hand on Naruto's head and patted his head like he was one of his ninja dog summons. "Listen to me Naruto, in this world there are kids out there who are younger than you but stronger than me," our sensei explained, but Naruto's face showed that he still wasn't satisfied with that answer.

I turned my attention to the tracker-nin who began to disappear in a small whirlwind. He reappeared by Zabuza's body threw it in over his shoulder. "There are many secrets hidden within this body. I must not let them fall into the wrong hands, so if you'll please excuse me," he spoke once more before disappearing again.

I watched as Kakashi placed his headband back over his Sharingan eye and let out a sigh of relief. I pursed my lips. I really need to make sure that Kakashi's okay. That battle with Zabuza was pretty rough, and he's used up a lot of chakra. I heard Naruto let out a cry of frustration, and I turned my attention to him.

"Gah! What are we even doing?! We're nothing! I can't believe it!" he yelled as he began to repeatedly pound his fists into the ground. I winced at his actions. He was frustrated, there was no doubt about that. It was a huge blow to his morale to see someone who seemed to be our age, take down an elite jonin like Zabuza.

Still, the medic in me didn't like seeing Naruto punch the dirty ground since he had already sustained injuries. I didn't want him creating any new ones. I also didn't want any mud or anything getting in his already injured hands. Thirdly, the friend in me didn't like seeing Naruto so upset, so I walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Naruto?" I called out softly just as Kakashi spoke.

"As ninja," he began, "we often find ourselves encountering things that are never easy. Save your fight for the next enemy," Kakashi told Naruto.

Naruto stopped punching the ground after hearing Kakashi's words and his shoulders slumped forward. Naruto then turned to me, and I offered him my hand. He looked at me and after a few seconds he took it. I gave his hand a gentle squeeze and helped him stand.

"Now, as exciting as that may have been, we still haven't completed our mission just yet," Kakashi spoke. "We still have to get Tazuna here to his bridge," he finished with a much lighter tone to his voice.

Tazuna laughed nervously, "Well, you all went through all this trouble and it was my fault, so when we get there you can all stay with me at my house," the old bridge builder offered. I perked up at the news. Sweet! No having to spend extra money on renting a room at an inn or camping outside!

With that, we began to head on to our destination. Kakashi again took the point in our formation, but after just a few steps, he collapsed.

"Kakashi-sensei!" both Naruto and Sakura cried out. I ran over to Kakashi and flipped him around so he was lying on his back rather than his stomach where he was getting a face full of dirt and mud. As soon as I flipped him over I ran a diagnostic jutsu.

I was glad to see that the only _actual_ injury he had was a gash on the hand he used to block one of Zabuza's attacks. I was not happy to see that his chakra reserves were so low. I could heal up the wound on his hand in a minute, but there's nothing I can do about chakra exhaustion. He'll just need to rest until his chakra levels are back to normal.

"Sumiko, what's wrong with Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked me as I worked on taking off Kakashi's metal plated glove. After pulling the glove off of his hand, I channeled chakra into my hands until they begin to glow a soft green.

"He has chakra exhaustion," I said as I began to work on healing his wound.

"Is he going to be okay?" she asked nervously as the gash on his hand patched itself up with the coaxing of a bit of medical chakra.

"Yeah, he'll be alright. He's just going to need rest. _A lot_ of rest," I told her as I put Kakashi's glove back on his hand.

As I faced my teammates I scanned them and Tazuna for any sort of bodily harm. "Do any of you have any injuries? Naruto, Sasuke, I know you two took a couple of nasty hits. Are you both okay? Don't you dare lie to me either, I saw the blood," I told them sternly.

"I feel just fine Sumiko-chan," Naruto said with a smile and I smiled back at him.

"Good. I'm glad you're okay. What about you, Sasuke?"

"Hn. I'm fine," he said.

I sighed. I _know_ they had some injuries. There was nothing wrong with admitting that you needed medical attention. Ugh, _boys_. "Fine, if you say so, but everyone is getting a check-up when we reach Tazuna's, no exceptions. Got it?" I said as I walked over to Kakashi and picked up his legs. I turned back to look at the rest of our traveling party to see them just looking at me.

I sighed again. "Don't just stand there you guys! Someone has to help me carry Kakashi. He's heavy and we still have to get old Tazuna here to his bridge."

"Hey!" Tazuna grumbled. "Who're you calling old?"

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 **There's chapter 7! Thanks for reading. Please let me know what you think! Also, if you're interested in reading other fanfics of mine, I've got another Naruto fic, a Harry Potter fic, and a Final Fantasy XV one as well. Thanks again!**

 **-S.F.E.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Alrighty, y'all. Here's chapter 8.**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or AtLA or anything else that may seem familiar. I own only my OC.**

* * *

We arrived at Tazuna's home just as the sun was beginning to set. Tazuna stepped to the front of our group and opened the front door or the house. "I'm home!" he called out and then turned and waved for us to follow him in.

Naruto and I were let in first since we were currently carrying Kakashi. As we stepped through the doorway, we heard the sounds of light and hurried footsteps rushing down the stairs. "You're home! How was your trip? Did eveyth-" the feminine voice stopped when she looked as us with the bottom of the stairs. I saw her staring at us, worry and confusion apparent in her eyes.

"Ah, Tsunami, these are the ninja that escorted me from Konoha," Tazuna said and then turned to us and scratched at his beard. "This is uh..." the old man trailed off. I wanted to roll my eyes, but refrained because I didn't want to come off as impolite in front of this new woman. But, seriously, did the old man really not know any of our names?

"I'm Sumiko, these are my teammates," I said using my head to gesture to the others.

"I'm Sakura Haruno. It's nice to meet you."

"Sasuke Uchiha."

"And I'm Naruto Uzumaki! I'm going to be the next Hokage!" Naruto yelled out happily. As he shouted, he made some flailing gestures with his arms which caused him to momentarily let go of Kakashi.

"Naruto!" Sakura yelled out and quickly moved to stop Kakashi's head from hitting the floor.

"And this," I paused and readjusted my grip on Kakashi's legs, "is our sensei."

"Eh he he. Oops. Sorry guys," Naruto said sheepishly.

"Oh, my! What happened to him?" Tsunami questioned.

Tazuna grumbled and began to speak. "Well, the thing is, we sort of ran into a bit of the trouble on the way, and their sensei got hurt," the old man explained.

"Oh, dear! It must have been quite the encounter!" Tsunami said.

"It was," I said hastily, "and uhh, I don't want to be rude or anything, but is there anywhere we can put him for now?" I asked and Tsunami's eyes widened.

"Of course! I'm so sorry. I'll show you where you can lay him down. Just follow me," Tsunami said kindly and turned around heading back up the stairs. I turned to Sakura, who was now holding on to Kakashi along with me silently asking her if she was ready for us to start walking. She nodded and as we headed up the boys followed after us.

We followed Tsunami up the stairs and she led us into a large and room with plenty of clear floor space at the end of the hall. She opened the door for us and ushered us in. "I'll let you have your privacy. Let me know if you all need anything, and thank you for bringing my father back safely," Tsunami said to us.

I was about to respond when surprisingly, Sasuke beat me to it. "My team and I thank you for allowing us into your home and for your hospitality," he said politely. Tsunami smiled softly and then closed the door behind her as she left the room.

We carefully laid Kakashi on the bed and once he was situated, I started with a diagnostic jutsu just to see if anything had changed between then and now. "Is Kakashi-sensei going to be okay, Sumiko?" Sakura asked.

I looked to her and nodded. "Yeah, I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything before, and see if anything had changed from while we were in the field to now. I've healed up all I could already. He'll wake up when he's recovered enough energy," I paused and blew a lock of hair out of my face, "Which, based on prior experience, could be anywhere from tomorrow to three days," I explained.

"You mean this has happened before?" Naruto and Sakura asked simultaneously.

I nodded. "Yeah. Kakashi's one of the best, if not _the best_ jonin in the village so he get's sent out on dangerous missions a lot."

When I first came to be under Kakashi's care, I would sometimes catch him sneaking out of the hospital and back to the apartment as I walked through the village. At first, he would have medic-nin's chasing after him trying to make him go back to the hospital to fully recover, but the eventually gave in and let him go. When they realized that I now lived with Kakashi, some of the hospital staff eventually just started to let me know that Kakashi was currently in the hospital after having come back from a mission.

They became a little less frustrated that Kakashi kept escaping from the hospital before he was completely recovered when some of the medics found out I had some medical training. Some were concerned that I was a still just a kid, but figured that they shouldn't be so surprised a Hatake was good at things that most people wouldn't be good at until they were much older. So, whenever Kakashi fled the hospital, I was given his medications - usually comprising of chakra supplements - and made sure he took them.

"Kakashi-sensei. _Really_?" Kakashi asked skeptically. I looked to the others, and Sakura and Sasuke both showed hints of disbelief in their expressions, though not as obviously as Naruto.

"Yup. I know it's kind of hard to believe with the way he acts and all, but Kakashi-sensei is a seriously awesome ninja. We saw a little bit of what he's truly capable of during the fight with Zabuza," I told them.

"Yeah! Kakashi-sensei was totally awesome against Zabuza. Even if did get himself trapped." Naruto said.

"Sensei only got himself trapped to save us. If he didn't have us to look after, I'm sure he would never have gotten trapped in the first place," Sakura defended.

I sighed and shook my head. Maybe he wouldn't have, maybe he would have. I don't want to even think about what would have happened if Kakashi had gotten caught and we hadn't been there for Naruto and Sasuke to get him out. "There's no way to know what would have happened, so there's no point in talking about it," I said seriously and the two stopped arguing. "You two did do a good job on getting him out though," I directed to Naruto and Sasuke.

"Hehe, yeah! We did pretty good!" Naruto said happily. Sasuke didn't say anything but had a pleased look on his face.

"Not too shabby for a couple of genin who have been out of the Academy for what - a month? Good work, team." I smiled.

"Yeah! We're definitely the best team! Kiba and Shikamaru's teams don't have anything on us!"

"Our team _is_ pretty awesome, but we've still got a mission to finish," I said bringing the conversation back to our current job. "Now, let's go downstairs and ask Tazuna what he plans on doing tomorrow. Our mission is to keep him safe until he completes the bridge."

"Sumiko's right. We need to stay on mission. With Kakashi down we'll need to tighten our guard.

Sakura nodded with determination clear in her eyes. "Right."

"Come on guys. Let's go ask the old man what he's gonna do," Naruto said and left the room to head downstairs. One by one the rest of us got up and followed Naruto down back to the kitchen where we had entered.

* * *

"There you kinds are! I was just about to go and get you! Tsunami is making us some dinner," Tazuna grumbled as he took another swig out of his sake bottle.

"Alright! Thanks lady! I'm starving!" Naruto said and Tsunami let out a soft laugh at his antics.

"Thank you Tsunami-san. It's very kind of you to do this for us," Sakura said much more politely than Naruto had.

"Oh, it's not a problem. You all brought my family home safely. The least I could do is feed you all," she said with a smile.

When we began to sit down at the table, I saw Sasuke wince slightly as he sat down. I frowned as I remembered. "I'm such an idiot," I whispered to myself. I had been so focused on Kakashi that I had totally forgotten that I was going to give everyone a quick checkup to make sure they were all okay.

I stood up from my chair abruptly and everyone looked at me. "I need to make sure you all are okay," I said to Tazuna and my teammates.

Tazuna let out a grumbling sort of sound and said, "No need to waste your energy on me girlie. You and your team did your job well. I'm just fine." I raised an eyebrow in response.

"I'd like to be sure, just in case," I said in a tone that hopefully conveyed that I was not going to let this go.

"Alright, alright," Tazuna sighed as he set his bottle of sake on the table. "Go ahead and use your fancy ninja magic on me, but I'm telling you that I'm just fine."

I quickly performed a diagnostic jutsu to make sure he was okay, and for the most part, he was okay. There was no sign of any new injuries, but there was something that had me a bit concerned. "Alright, you don't have any injuries-"

"See? I told you that I was fine."

"But-"

"But? What do you mean but? You said I was just fine!"

I shot the old bridge builder a glare. "Yes, there is no evidence of you having sustained any injuries on the way here, _but_ you should really watch your alcohol intake. It's affecting your liver, and _not_ in a good way."

" _See_ , I told you that you need to stop drinking so much dad," Tsunami chided. Tazuna only grumbled in response and reached out his hand to grab his sake bottle, only to put it back down. It seems the old man might actually try and work on controlling his drinking a little better.

I looked to my teammates, "So, who's going first?" I asked.

"I didn't really do much, so I can wait," Sakura said with bits of sadness in her voice. I didn't like the sound of that. I'd have toask her about what's bothering her soon. Sakura's my friend, and I don't want my friends to be sad.

"I'll go first, I guess," Naruto said with a shrug.

"Okay. Let's head up to the room where Kakashi's at," I told him. We walked up to the room and I motioned for Naruto to sit down on one of the cots Tsunami had set up for us to use.

"Alright Naurto, first off, does anything hurt?" I asked as I pulled out a small bottle of antiseptic and a few clean bandages out from one of the pouches on my belt.

"Nah, I'm okay. My face and stomach were a little sore from getting hit, but I feel fine now." Naruto answered.

"Well, I'm glad to know that nothing hurts, but I still want to make sure that you're completely okay, alright?"

"Sure thing Sumiko-chan." Naruto said with a grin.

I quickly ran a diagnostic jutsu - and man, have I been doing a lot of these lately - to find signs of minor bruising on his abdomen, but other than that and a scrape on his face, I couldn't find anything wrong. This struck me as a bit strange because I was sure that with the hits he took there would have been a bit more damage than a few scrapes and bruises, but then again, " _You may already have one, seeing as you seem to have a never ending amount of energy to keep that big mouth of yours running"._ Sakura may have not been serious that time we were discussing kekkei genkai, but maybe she was onto something because there was no way that a normal person heals this fast. If he did have a kekkei genaki of some sort, Naruto didn't seem to be aware of it. Whatever it is, it makes my job easier anyhow.

"You've got a few bruises on your stomach that I'd like to fix and a few bloody spots that need cleaning, but other than that you're just fine."

Naruto sat there as I cleaned off the dry blood and dirt from his face and quickly patched up the scrapes. Once I was done with that, I asked him if he could lift his shirt. "Ehh? Why do I have to pick up my shirt?" Naruto asked with a slight blush on his cheeks.

"I have to be able to see your injuries so I can heal them you know," I said as I crossed my arms over my chest and patiently waited for him to respond to my request.

"Alright, fine," he said as he tugged up his shirt and turned his face away from me in embarrassment.

"Huh," I said as I stared. Naruto had some sort of circular seal on his stomach that encircled his bellybutton. I knelt down to get a closer look at it. Why does Naruto have a seal on him?

"Don't stare at it!"

I could feel the blood rush to my cheeks. Way to be professional Sumiko. "Sorry, sorry! I didn't mean to stare. I've just never seen-," I shook my head, "nevermind. I'm sorry Naruto. It's none of my business, but that's not going to interfere with medical treatment, will it?" I asked.

"Huh? Nah, I don't think so at least. Never has before," he answered and I nodded.

"Alright, good." I said as I looked back down and began to heal up his bruises. Like before, all I really did was speed up the healing process. Something else was healing him already. Maybe he really does have a kekkei genkai.

I backed away and Naruto let out a breath. "Am I good to go now, Sumiko-chan?" Naruto asked in his usual chipper tone, but his eyes were all sadness.

Why? Why is he so sad? Did it have something to do with that seal? I gave him a half-hearted smile and stood up. "Yup, you're all good to go. If you could do me a favor and send Sasuke up here please?"

"Sure thing Sumiko-chan."

I watched as Naruto walked out of the door and then turned around to clean up the materials I had used to fix up Naruto's wounds. I was about to pick up the bottle of antiseptic when I heard Naruto yell, "Hey, teme! Sumiko-chan says you're next!" from down the hall. I laughed quietly to myself as I finished cleaning up and waited for Sasuke to get in here.

I didn't have to wait long since Sasuke arrived shortly after he was called. He walked into the room and stood there with his arms crossed over his chest. "Alright, Sasuke, let's get you fixed up," I told him.

"Hn."

I rolled my eyes and used another diagnostic jutsu to find that he had three bruised ribs and some light bruising on his neck where he had been grabbed. He also had some small cuts on his fingers that looked like they were from weapon use, but I wasn't too worried about those. It was his ribs that were my primary concern.

I pursed my lips as I silently gauged my chakra levels. Using so much medical jutsu in such a short time had me wearing a bit thin. I didn't have enough to confidently heal his ribs. Looks like I'm switching to my waterbending.

"What," Sasuke said bluntly.

I looked him in his eyes and narrowed my gaze. " _I'm just fine_ , huh?" I said, attempting to imitate Sasuke.

He glared lightly at me. "Get to the point."

"You've got three bruised ribs, bruising on your neck, and some cuts on your hands. You are most definitely not fine." I said.

"I'm going to need you to lift your shirt up please," I told Sasuke and waited for him to comply. Sasuke just stared at me blankly and I rolled my eyes. "Don't be stupid, you dummy. This is strictly for medical purposes. It's not like I'm going to grope you or anything," I informed him. After a few moments of silently contemplating whether or not I was lying, Sasuke reluctantly took off his shirt.

I couldn't help but frown when I saw the large purple and blue bruise. Sasuke was quite pale, and the dark colors stood out greatly against his skin. Yup. Definitely using waterbending for this. I pulled some water out of my pouch and had it coat both of my hands. I turned to Sasuke and saw him look at me with a half curious, half apprehensive gaze. "I can heal with water too. I'd usually use medical ninjutsu for injuries, but you're injured pretty badly and I have neither the chakra or experience to heal more serious wounds that way," I explained.

"Hn. Just hurry up already."

I nodded and noticed that he twitched slightly as I placed my hands on his bruises. I frowned and focused on healing his injuries. The water began to grow the same bright bluish white it always did when healing and I could see Sasuke start to visibly relax. That's a good sign. He must be starting to feel better now. I continued to heal him until I was satisfied with my work. As soon as I moved my hands away Sasuke let out a long breath.

"Does it hurt anymore?" I asked.

"It's fine."

I rolled my eyes at his short answers. I guess two words is better than one of his usual 'hn's though. I mean, that's not even a real word! It's just a sound! "Alright. Now can you tilt your head to the side so I can work on your neck?" I requested.

Slowly, he complied and I moved forward so I could heal his neck. Seeing the hand shaped bruising made me feel sick to my stomach. He could have really gotten hurt. He could have died! Had I seen the bruising then, I would have treated him while we were still out in the field.

I felt a tight grip on the wrist of my right hand which was working on the bruises on Sasuke's neck. I looked up and away from the injury to meet Sasuke's gaze. "Will you stop your worrying already? It's annoying and pointless," he said angrily.

"Pointless? He could have killed you Sasuke! Any more pressure on that and he would have crushed your neck!" I yelled as I yanked my arm out of his grip.

"So what? We knew we we decided to become ninja that there was a very high chance we could get killed because of it."

"Yes, but not now! Not while we're still genin!"

"Hn. He's gone. It's over, so quit your worrying," he said pointedly.

I sighed. I knew he was right. Besides, isn't that what I was here for? So my friends wouldn't die? "Right, so your neck is pretty much all healed up, but let me know if you experience any pain or discomfort. All that's left is the little cuts on your fingers. Give me your hands, this should take less than a minute," I said.

And it really would have taken less than a minute. Unfortunately, it also took less than a minute for Naruto to come barging into the room with Sakura trailing behind him. "Hey, Sumiko-chan what's wrong? I heard you yelling."

"Naruto! Sumiko is using this room as an examination room! Plus, Kakashi-sensei is resting in there! You can't just barge in and - Ahhhh!" Sakura shrieked as she stared at Sasuke and I. "What's going on in here?!" She yelled with a furious look on her face.

"Sakura, I'm going to have to ask you to quiet down or leave," I said sternly looking away from Sasuke. Kakashi, or any of us really, needed her making such a ruckus. She quit yelling but her fury didn't die down. She kept shifting her gaze between me and Sasuke. What was she so mad about? I looked between Sasuke and I to see what she could be so angry about, and after a few moments I realized why she looked so angry.

"Ohh," I whispered in realization. Here I was in close proximity to Sasuke with my palms pressed up against his. From Sakura's point of view, it must have looked like we were holding hands. Not to mention that Sasuke was without a shirt, which probably didn't help the way this looked either.

I looked to Sasuke and he just held an emotionless expression on his face, revealing nothing about what was going on in his head. I gently pulled my hands away from his and said, "You should be good to go now," to which his response was, "Hn," and then turned away from us and went about his business of putting his shirt back on and what not. I looked to Naruto.

"Nothing's wrong, Naruto-kun. There was just a bit of a misunderstanding is all, but everything's fine now. Is Tsunami-san finished with dinner now by any chance?" I asked because one, I wanted to change the subject, and two, I was starting to get kind of hungry.

"Oh, yeah! Tsunami says dinner is just about done, so whenever you're finished up here to come down and eat something," Naruto told me.

"Great!" I smiled. "Well, you, Tazuna, and Sasuke have all been looked over and patched up, so I'll just make sure Sakura's good to go and we'll be right down okay?" I had wanted to talk to Sakura anyway, and this seemed like the most opportune time. Yeah, I'm certain I'd have to suffer through her "what were you doing in here with my beloved Sasuke" questions, but I figure they're a small price to pay to ensure that my friend is alright both physically and emotionally. The boys left, leaving Sakura and I alone in the room together.

"So Sakura, how are y-"

"What were you doing in here with Sasuke?!" she demanded.

Yup. I totally called this one. "Relax, Sakura," I said calmly, "Sasuke had some injuries that required the removal of his shirt in order for me to properly treat him. He also had some cuts on his hands which was why it may have looked as if we were holding hands. I promise you Sakura, nothing other than patching up his injuries and a bit of arguing was going on in this room. I'm more professional than that and Kakashi's still in the room you know," I told her. She looked me straight in the eyes and stared at me, seeming to be searching for something. Then, after a moment, she let out a breath of relief.

"Well alright, I trust you Sumiko," she said to me.

"So how are you feeling?" I asked her once more.

"Physically, I feel great. I mean, I didn't really do anything in that fight, or in the confrontation with the Demon Brothers before that," she said dejectedly as she sat down on one of the cots in the room. I sat down next to her and laid my hand on her shoulder.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked. She took a few minutes but then nodded.

"It's just, I'm starting to wonder why I was even put on this team. Was I just an extra they decided to stick here? I mean, Sasuke's so cool and he's so strong too. He was the best at everything in the Academy. You've got this amazing power over water, and you can heal too. I mean, Zabuza Momochi wanted to take you on as a student. Even Naruto was strong and brave enough to go up and fight against Zabuza to get Kakashi-sensei out of that jutsu," she took a deep breath and continued, "And then there's me. I haven't done anything yet, and even if I were to try to do something I know I can't do what you all were doing. I'm not skilled enough. I know that this is only our first C-ranked mission outside of the village, but I feel like I'm already falling so far behind," she said and I could hear the crack in her voice as she tried to hold back the tears.

"Sakura listen to me," I said firmly. "Your time to shine will come. You kept in front of Tazuna when we were attacked on the road. You made sure he was safe. You did the same during the battle with Zabuza too, and that is our mission, to protect Tazuna. But, if you really feel like you're falling behind, we need to kick up our training in both frequency and difficulty. Your time will come, Sakura. We're just genin still fresh out of the Academy. We're still getting stronger. It's not like we're going to stay at this level forever. It'll take hard work, but if you want to get stronger that's what it's going to take," I paused and took a breath. "So, are you ready to pick up our training once we get back to the village?"

"Yeah! I'll do whatever it takes to make sure I don't fall behind!" she said with determination shining clearly in her eyes.

" _Anything_? Does this mean you'll wear the green jumpsuit?" I said with a teasing grin. I knew from our first training session that she did not like the green jumpsuit at all.

"No way! That jumpsuit is hideous! I'll work a million times harder if it means I don't have to wear that ugly thing."

* * *

After that heart-to-heart chat with Sakura and making absolutely sure that she was physically doing well, we headed down for dinner. Dinner was going pretty smoothly. Naruto was happily talking about how excited he was to be on this mission and had just asked Tazuna how long he thought it would take to complete the bridge.

"Well, it depends on how many of my men show up," he said.

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura asked. Tazuna looked at Tsunami and then at the three of us one by one.

"Dad, there's no reason to bother them about this. They're just kids," Tsunami said with a nervous smile.

I immediately looked away from her and Tazuna and looked at my teammates. I caught Sasuke's gaze first. His look conveyed the message that he thought we should know what was going on. I subtly nodded to Sasuke, saying that I agreed with him. If it had anything to do with Gato - and let's be honest, it probably did - we needed to know. Sure, no other high level ninja like Zabuza or even chunin like the Demon Brothers had come after us again, but Tazuna was still under our protection and would continue to be until the bridge is completed. The longer it takes the bridge to get finished, the longer we are responsible for his life.

"Regardless of whether or not you think we _kids_ should be involved in this, my team and I need to know what's going on. Your father is under our protection while that bridge is being built. Not knowing what we were walking into already put not only your father at risk, but put _my team_ at risk as well. I will not have that happen again," Sasuke spoke in a stern and commanding voice.

I was shocked by his words. Where had that come from? He spoke like someone who knew what they were doing and commanded respect in his every word. He sounded like a leader. He was a thirteen year old genin fresh out of the Academy, just like the rest of us, and Tsunami had to at least be in her late twenties. Yet, the way he spoke made it seem like he was the older and more experienced one out of the pair.

What surprised me even more was the fact that he mentioned us - his teammates. He didn't want to put us at risk. He was taking our safety into consideration as well, and that's what really made his little speech impressive to me. The Sasuke Uchiha from the Academy would have never said something like that. He had grown. Not only in physical strength, because he had done that too, but mentally and emotionally as well. His tone still suggested haughtiness and superiority, but he wasn't quite as much of a jerk to Naruto, Sakura, and I as he was when we first became a team. It was slow going, but I think Sasuke was finally starting to lose that cold demeanor he always hid behind. With us at least.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out in disbelief, though i could tell it wasn't for the same reason I was in disbelief. Sakura's tone lay more along the lines of mortification. Mortification that he, her beloved Sasuke Uchiha, could say something that could be considered rude. I honestly don't know why she was so surprised.

"The boy - I mean, the young shinobi is right, Tsunami. They need to know everything, and besides, they already know most of the story," Tazuna told his daughter and then looked to us.

"I told you all and your sensei about Gato earlier. How he's the boss thug that's keeping the people of this land poor while he takes all the money. Before my crew and I started working on this bridge, I had many men working for me on various projects. When we started building the bridge, I received my first threat. I ignored it and kept working. Our people need this bridge if we ever want to get out of Gato's control. Soon after, I had to go to Konoha on business when I received word about what had been happening back here. Three of my best workers had been beaten badly, and one, murdered. Also, that after that incident, less and less men had been showing up. They were worried about themselves and their families. I knew they would go after me next, so I decided to hire some ninja before I headed back," he let out a long breath, ran a hand through his hair and continued.

"I had hoped that with the presence of some ninja, my men would feel safe enough to come back to work so we could get the bridge finished," he explained.

"That's why you weren't too happy when we had been assigned this mission," I said. If he wanted ninja not only to protect him, but be reassuring figures to his workers he would have wanted older ninja. We didn't exactly fit that image. Yes, there was Kakashi, but he was only one man. Not to mention the rest of us. We're a group of twelve and thirteen year olds. We may be shinobi, but here in a non ninja village, they wouldn't think that kids like us were capable of much.

"It's nothing against you, I know what you all are capable of now, but my men won't. You all will look like a bunch of ordinary snot nosed brats to them," said Tazuna.

"Well we'll just have to show them what we can do! If any thugs think they're going to get you we'll stop 'em dead in their tracks!" Naruto exclaimed. I couldn't help but agree with Naruto, and from the looks of it, Sakura and Sasuke felt the same way.

"You'll get that bridge done. We'll make sure of it."

* * *

Dinner ended soon after that and everyone was getting ready to head off to bed. When Tazuna and Tsunami weren't paying attention, I signaled to my teammates. I wanted to talk to them about the whole Gato situation. I hadn't even seen the guy, but i wanted him dealt with. His oppression of these people reminded to much of the Fire Nation, and I didn't like it. Not one bit.

The four of us headed upstairs and sat in a circle in a corner of the room we were given away from a still resting Kakashi. "What's up, Sumiko-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Yeah, is everything okay?" Sakura questioned with concern. Sasuke just leaned back against the wall with his hands on his knees, but he had a curious glint in his eyes.

"I want to know what you all think about the situation Gato has these people in," i said seriously. Naruto was the first to speak up.

"It's terrible! Someone needs to teach this Gato guy a lesson!" Naruto said angrily. I smirked at his reaction. I knew that Naruto wouldn't be able to stand what this no good thug was doing to these people.

"What's your point?" Sasuke asked.

"Yeah, where exactly are you going with this Sumiko?" Sakura added.

"I think we should talk to Kakashi about getting rid of Gato," I said plainly and observed my teammates in order to gauge their reactions to my suggestion. Sakura's eyes had immediately gone wide with shock and uncertainty. Naruto's had gone wide too, but for different reasons. He held a look of surprise, like a "why didn't I think of that" expression. Sasuke was relaxed and held a smirk on his face as well. I could see in his eyes that he was already planning things out in his head.

Well, two out of three isn't so bad.

"Yeah! That's a great idea Sumiko-chan! We can go after Gato and save the town!" Naruto shouted and added an excited laugh at the end.

"Are you crazy?!" Sakura interjected. "How are we supposed to get rid of Gato? That guy's the boss thug! He probably has tons more ninja like Zabuza working for him!" our pink haired teammates retaliated.

"Actually, ninja of Zabuza's level are not many in number and would be very expensive to hire. Besides, if Gato had more ninja like Zabuza, don't you think he would have attacked us by now? It would be the perfect time with Kakashi as exhausted as he is. I think all Gato has left are a bunch of regular non-ninja thugs. Them, I do believe we can handle," I reasoned.

"Yeah, we can definitely take those thugs!" Naruto said. He was clearly excited about having the chance to do something to help all of these people.

Sasuke scoffed at him. "Sure you won't just freeze up again, scaredy cat?" he taunted.

"That won't happen again. I swore it wouldn't and I never go back on my word!" Naruto retorted.

"Quiet down Naruto. We don't want to wake up the entire household!" Sakura hushed him. Naruto rubbed the back of his neck with a sheepish look on his face.

"Eh he he, sorry guys. I guess I got a little over excited.

"I'll say," Sakura whispered harshly under her breath.

"So what do we think?" I asked them, redirecting the conversation back to the Gato situation. "Should we talk to Kakashi about this?"

"I say we go for it. If we can help these people then we should," Naruto said.

"Hn. It's worth a shot," Sasuke said, and then all three of us turned our eyes to Sakura.

"Sakura? What do you think?" I asked her and I watched as she looked at all of us with uneasy eyes.

"We'll just be asking Kakashi-sensei if we can even do anything, right?" she asked hesitantly.

I nodded. "Yes. We can't just go by ourselves. We'll have to ask Kakashi if this is even feasible before even planning anything."

Sakura seemed to be reassured by that and slowly, she nodded. "Okay, I'm in. There's no harm in asking."

"Oh yeah! We're going to save the village!" Naruto cried out excitedly.

"Naruto! Quiet down!"

* * *

**OMAKE: TRAINING WITH SAKURA!**

"Good morning, Sakura!" I called cheerfully to her approaching figure. Today was our first day of my private training sessions with her.

"Sumiko, I know I asked for your help and all, but don't you think it's a little too early? I mean it's not even fi..." she trailed off and stared at me in shock and a little bit of disgust.

"What are you _wearing_?!" she asked, horrified. Her jaw dropped to the floor and her eye began to twitch. I looked down to what I was wearing. It was a green jumpsuit with orange leg warmers to match the outfits that Gai-sensei and Rock Lee always wore.

"What? I like it. It fills me with the power of youth!" I exclaimed. It was true too. Something about this suit made me feel much more determined and energetic. I asked Gai-sensei why that was once, and he said that I was feeling the power of youth.

"You're not going to make me wear one of those are you?" Sakura asked nervously.

"The jumpsuit, no. You will have to wear these though," I told her as I held out a pair of leg weights. "Right now, they're only about twenty-five pounds each, so you should be okay," I told her nonchalantly as I handed them over to her.

"But that's fifty extra pounds, Sumiko!" she complained and I narrowed my eyes at my female teammate.

"Look, you asked for my help didn't you?" I asked sharply and she hesitantly nodded her head. "If you want my help we do things my way. This is the training I went through, and now you'll do the same," I said sternly. I saw her face mold into one of determination and I smiled at her.

"Alright! Let's get started!"

*Sakura's P.O.V.*

"First off, we'll do three hundred push-ups! Then we'll do five hundred sit ups and one hundred laps around the village! And then after that we'll come back and do..." I listened to Sumiko list off what we were going to do today. She's absolutely crazy! She's going to kill me!

"Let's go, Sakura!" she called happily as she jumped to the ground and quickly began to do push-ups in rapid succession.

Maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I shook my head. No! I can't think like that! I have to get stronger! Cha!

* * *

We were finally on our last lap around the village when a green blur zoomed past us shouting, "Feel the power of youth!"

My eyes followed the green clad figure until whoever they were quickly disappeared out of sight. I'm getting the feeling that that was a person Sumiko had trained with. I looked to Sumiko who had a new fire in her eyes.

"Let's go, Sakura! Let's make this our fastest lap yet! We must get stronger! LET US FEEL THE POWER OF YOUTH!" Sumiko cried out as she ran faster than I've ever seen. I narrowed my gaze in determination. I don't know about this whole power of youth thing, but I am determined to get stronger. I moved my legs faster than I had all day.

"Cha! I will become stronger!"

* * *

 **There you have it! Thank you all for reading and taking the time to review. It really means a lot to me. As always, if you want to read more of my work, I've got a few other fanfics for y'all to check out. Thanks again! - S.F.E.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or A:tLA**

 **Here's Chapter 9!**

* * *

The next morning I woke up well before the sunrise. I glanced around the room quickly to see Sakura cuddled up to her bag that doubled as her pillow, Naruto sprawled out across the floor with a steady stream of drool running down from the corner of his mouth, and Kakashi as still as we had left him when we set him down yesterday. Sasuke was missing, but that wasn't surprising seeing as he was chosen for the last watch last night.

Feeling more awake than I'd particularly like to this early in the morning, I got up, sidestepping and lightly hopping over Sakura's and Naruto's still sleeping forms to get to Kakashi. I checked on his recovery and then made my way outside. I knew I wasn't going to get any more sleep no matter how hard I tried. The moon was calling me. I could feel it calling out to me, summoning me outside. I knew what it wanted and I was eager to comply. It was a full moon and I hadn't been surrounded by so much water on a full moon since I came to these lands.

As soon as I stepped outside I could feel a wave of peace wash over me. I walked to the nearby shoreline and stepped onto the water. Taking in the feel of the water and the light of the moon I went through sets of waterbending basics, the water beside me rising up fluid and ever changing, following my form as a sort of silent partner. I breathed in deeply and closed my eyes as I continued through my sets. It was a peaceful experience, almost meditative.

When I finished, I stood with my arms out to my sides and my eyes still closed, taking in the last bits of moonlight before the sun rose. "I really need to do this more often," I murmured to myself.

"I would say you do, child. It brings me joy to see a child of water find peace on these shores after the years of suffering these waters have witnessed."

I gasped and popped my eyes open to see — a dragon? Whatever it was, it certainly seemed like a dragon. It had a long body with glimmering silver scales and a mane and eyes the same blue-green as the water. I also took note of the long horns and sharp looking claws and teeth.

"Peace, water child. I mean you no harm," the dragon reassured with his rumbling voice. "I am Tsuyoishio. You woke me from my slumber."

"Y-Y-You're a river spirit," I managed to stutter out after gaping like a fish.

The dragon, Tsuyoishio, nodded his large head. "I am."

"I-I am so sorry for waking you, Great Spirit," I apologized while bowing as low as I could. Way to go Sumiko, you just interrupted a river spirit's rest.

"Stand, water child. You have done no wrong. I come to you out of curiosity. Long has it been since I have witnessed the presence of one of your kind upon my shores."

"Other benders have been here?" I asked with eyes wide.

"Children of the earth and children of air have crossed my water before when I was young. You are the second child of water I have seen, though the first was many years ago. The trees spoke of a child of fire, but clearly they spout nonsense as always. You are clearly a child of water."

I stood there, with no answer for the river spirit. Other benders had been here. Maybe there weren't any here now, but they had been here and that was something.

"The moon goes off to slumber as the sun rises and so must I. Child of water, you have my protection as long as you are on my waters. You ha-"

Tsuyoishio was cut off as the whizzing of shuriken whistled through the air. I turned to the bank to see Sasuke standing there with more projectiles in his hands, ready for launch. The shuriken that were headed towards the large dragon was immediately engulfed in water from the river and shot back at Sasuke with twice the force.

Faster than I could follow, the river spirit rushed to the banks until he was inches away from Sasuke. Tsuyoishio then let out a deafening roar at Sasuke before melting back into the water and disappearing from sight.

I stared at Sasuke, blinking as if that would help me process what had just happened. Sasuke stared out to the river with a startled expression for several moments before turning to me.

"What wa-"

"You just angered a river spirit," I blurted out, cutting off whatever Sasuke was going to say. To further prove my point, the current along the river bank began to get get rougher and choppier to the point where Sasuke was sprayed in the face with water. As soon as he was hit, the water calmed back down.

"I don't think he likes you."

* * *

When we got back to the bridge builder's house, Sasuke was still sopping wet.

"Sumiko-chan, Sasuke-kun, there you two are! Good, I was just about to go and find you. It's almost time for br— uh, Sasuke-kun, why are you all wet?" Sakura asked with a confused expression.

"Sasuke angered a river spirit," I said with a smile. Now that I had a few moments to gather my thoughts, I found the whole situation amusing.

"A river spirit? Really? You've got some really bad luck teme," Naruto laughed.

"A river spirit, hmm? You sure find your way into some interesting situations, Sumiko-chan," Kakashi spoke as he slowly made his way down the stairs.

"Kakashi-nii!" I cried out and ran up to help him.

"Maa, I'm fine Sumiko-chan, just a little tired," he said as I helped him over to the table.

"And I didn't go looking for a spirit, he found me," I explained and heard him mutter "I don't think that makes the situation any less strange" under his breath.

After Kakashi was seated the rest of our team sat down too while Tsunami continued to make breakfast.

"Tell us more about the river spirit, Sumiko-chan!" Naruto said. I knew by the looks he was shooting Sasuke, he wanted to know how our black-haired teammate had managed to anger a spirit.

"What's all this about a river spirit?" Tazuna grumbled as he sat down at the kitchen table with us, rubbing the back of his head.

"It seems a couple of the ninja had an encounter with a river spirit around here," Tsunami answered her father, not turning from her cooking.

Tazuna looked at us with curiosity. "Was it a dragon?"

"How did you know?" I asked.

"There are old stories about a river spirit that went by the name of Tsyo- Tsuru-"

"Tsuyoishio?" I butted in.

"That's the one. There's old stories about that dragon. There used to be several sightings of him a year, but nobody's seen the spirit in years though. Not since Gato and his men took over the town," Tazuna explained. "But you saw him did you?"

I nodded. "I did. Sasuke saw him too," I said and smiled at Sasuke who returned the gesture with a glare.

"So tell us Sumiko-chan! How did teme manage to get that dragon all mad?" Naruto asked.

I smiled at Sasuke once more as I explained to the others about my encounter with the water dragon - excluding the bits about benders - and how Sasuke cut the spirit off mid sentence by hurtling a bunch of shuriken at him. As I finished my tale, the whole room, excluding Sasuke and I, was laughing. Even Sakura couldn't hold back her giggles, even if they were at Sasuke's expense.

Seeing Sasuke's frown I added in, "In Sasuke's defense though, I don't think he knew it was a river spirit he had launched shuriken at."

"Well, let that be a lesson to us all on thoroughly assessing a situation before deciding on a course of action," Kakashi said. "Though, it may make things a bit difficult for you today," he directed to Sasuke.

"What do you mean by that sensei?" Sakura asked.

"You'll be training on the water today. You all have gotten the hang of walking on water, but now you have to learn to stay up while fighting on it. You'll need it soon enough," he explained.

Soon enough? Is he expecting something?

"What are you not telling us?" Sasuke said, finally speaking for the first time since we got back to the house.

"I have some bad news," Kakashi said with a sigh.

"What is it Kakashi-sensei?"

"Yeah, sensei, what's the problem?"

"Zabuza is still alive."

The room went silent. Even the noise from Tsunami lightly scraping the bottom of the pot as she stirred stopped at the news.

"What do you mean Zabuza's still alive? I thought that hunter ninja finished him off?" Naruto asked.

Kakashi sighed once more. "Now that i've had time to think on it, hunter-nin are supposed to dispose of the body on site, not take it away."

Sakura gasped. "So that means..."

"The guy pretending to be a hunter is working with Zabuza," Sasuke finished.

"I'm afraid so," Kakashi said and then turned to Tazuna. "He'll need time to recover. He's in worse shape than I am at the moment. His injuries were worse than mine. Plus, we've got our own little medic to help us out," Kakashi explained, patting the top of my head and I couldn't help but pout. He does this _all the time_. How many times do I have to tell him to stop treating me like one of his nin-ken?

"You'll be safe for a week or two, but after that, Zabuza should be back to reasonable strength."

The bridge builder's face had gone pale and Tsunami, who had turned around to listen to listen to Kakashi, looked terrified. Kakashi then looked to my teammates and I.

"Now would be a good time to get to training, my cute little genin."

* * *

"Damn it!" Naruto cried out just before a loud splash told that Naruto had fallen into the river once more.

We'd been out here for hours trying to manage a spar against each other while staying on top of the water. Things weren't going so great for Naruto. Or Sasuke for that matter. It seems my new friend Tsuyoishio, was still a bit sore from Sasuke's attempt at attack earlier today. No matter where Sasuke moved, the water on which he stood was always a much rougher current than the rest of us making it more difficult for him to concentrate on finding the right flow of chakra to stick to the surface and fight at the same time. He'd stopped falling in so often after the first hour, but he still hadn't been able to go on the offensive in his spars against Naruto because of this.

"Gahh! Naruto yelped, falling into the water yet again.

Then again, even with an angry river spirit, Sasuke still seemed to be having an easier time than Naruto.

As for Sakura and I, we've been doing pretty well. We both had better chakra control than the boys, so it was easier for us to move on the water. Now, we were focusing more on the sparring itself than learning how to control our chakra to move on water easier.

"Ready to go again, Sakura?" I asked. We had just taken a break after continuous spars for the past two hours.

"Sure thing, Sumiko," Sakura said as she stood up from her spot on the river bank.

"Hold on you two," Kakashi called from behind us. Sakura and I turned to see what he wanted. "Sakura, Sumiko, since the two of you have already shown excellent work with this technique, the two of you will be accompanying Tazuna into the village today. He's getting ready to leave soon, so you two better go and catch up," he said.

"Hai, sensei."

"You got it, Kakashi."

Sakura immediately started on her way back to the house, but I dug into one of the many pouches on my belt and pulled out a small bottle containing chakra supplements. I took the bottle and thrust it into Kakashi's hands.

"Your usual dosage. Make sure you _take them_ ," I said sternly before heading off to catch up with Sakura.

* * *

The Land of Waves was poor. The state of this market place made that easy to see. There was little to sell, and it seemed that there were even less that were actually able to purchase what little there was. Small children and others were at every corner begging for some food. This has been happening for years? This fueled my anger towards Gato even more. This needs to change. People shouldn't have to live like this. Some of these kids had probably known nothing but these deplorable conditions since birth. This wasn't right.

A little boy came up to Sakura and tugged on her bag. She quickly turned around and caught the boy's wrist. She didn't mean to harm or frighten the boy or anything, it was just shinobi instinct. The small boy got scared and tugged away from her, causing him to fall onto the rocky ground. I saw him scrape his knees and palms as he fell. When I saw the telltale red drops of blood, I quickly knelt down next to him.

"Hi there," I said softly as to not frighten the kid anymore than he probably already was.

"Don't hurt me!" He squeaked out and shielded his face with his now bloody hands.

Why would he think I would hurt him? It wasn't like I was a thug or any— oh. Gato probably had thugs and ninja come in and threaten citizens to stay in line with force. This whole town probably didn't have a good view of ninja, so to this kid we probably did seem like nothing better than thugs to him once he saw that we were ninja.

"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you," I said with a soft smile as the boy slowly lowered his hands and looked at me. "I know medical ninjutsu and noticed that you got a few scrapes. I just wanted to know if I could heal those up for you," I explained calmly.

I watched as the boy's eyes widened. "You can heal cuts?" he asked in wonder. I was glad not to hear fear in his voice anymore.

"Sure can. Wanna see?" I said with a smile as I channeled chakra into my left palm and the boy's eyes widened even further as my hand began to glow a soft green. Slowly, as to not startle the kid, I placed my hand on the boy's scraped knee and healed in up. It wasn't a big injury so it healed up in no time at all.

"Can I see your hands?" I asked him. The boy wordlessly nodded and held out his hands, palms facing up. Like the scrape on his knee, the scrapes on his hands weren't anything major either, so they healed up pretty quickly.

"Wow! That was so cool! It doesn't even hurt anymore! Thanks lady!" the little boy said as he scampered off.

As soon as the boy had gone, an elderly woman came up to me. "Excuse me young lady, was that medical ninjutsu that you just used?" she asked with a desperate look in her eyes.

"Yes?" I replied uncertainly. Does this count as talking to strangers, because I'm pretty sure I'm not suppose to be talking to strangers. Especially while I'm in a foreign village.

"Do you think you could take a look at my grandson? We can't pay you much, but I'm sure we could-"

I stopped her right there. "No, no no. You don't need to pay me. I'd be happy to help if I can," I told the old woman before I even realized the words had left my mouth. I could see tears began to gather in her eyes. Oh man, just what exactly did I get myself into? Curse my soft spot for the elderly.

"Bless you child. Please, follow me. We don't live too far away," she said and began shuffling away.

I quickly turned to Sakura and Tazuna. "Are you sure this is safe, Sumiko? We don't know this place, and it could be a trap," Sakura asked in concern. She had every right to be concerned. This really could be a trap, but she could also really have a grandson who needs help. This definitely wasn't the smartest move on my part.

"To be honest, I'm not sure if it is safe. It could be a trap, but then again, what if it's not? I'd feel terrible if her grandson really did need my help and I didn't do anything," I told her.

"Ah, old lady Michiko is harmless. Her grandson used to work for me ever since their family shop went out of business. He was one of the ones I mentioned that was beaten up by some of Gato's thugs. Left him in pretty bad shape I hear," Tazuna said.

After hearing that, I knew I had to take the risk of this being a trap to help these people.

"There's no doctor in town, and even if there was one, most of the people here don't have the money to pay for medical care," Tazuna continued, using the same tone he had used on us earlier when he was trying to guilt us into going through with this mission.

I sighed. "No need to say anymore, Tazuna-san. I'll do what I can to help them," I said and then turned to Sakura. "I have to help them, Sakura. Tell Kakashi what happened. I should hopefully be back by dinner time," I told my pink-haired teammate and then ran to catch up to old lady Michiko.

* * *

 **There's chapter 9! Thank you all so much for reading. If you're interested in reading more of my work, I've got a few other fics up for y'all to check out. I'm getting ready to start what should hopefully be my last year of Uni so please have patience with me. I'm taking a lighter load this year since I don't have that many credit hours left, so I should be able to hopefully keep updating more frequently. Thanks again! -S.F.E.**


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Ch. 10

* * *

When I entered Michiko-san's home, I quickly realized that Tazuna and his family were very well off compared to most of the other people in this town. The old man and his family had a spacious house and plenty of food to put on the table, enough to feed themselves and my team and I. In contrast, Michiko's place was small, and as we entered, there were several other people packed together in the tiny apartment that couldn't have been more than eight hundred square feet.

"Okaa-san, who is this? Why is this ninja with you?" a thin, almost gaunt looking man asked. Though the question was directed to Michiko-san, his steely glare was focused on me. Out of the corners of my eyes I could see that the other inhabitants in the room held similar expressions. Man, these people really haven't had any good encounters with ninja have they?

"Stop your staring, all of you. Don't you know that staring at a lady is rude?" Michiko-san scolded. "This young kunoichi is from Konohagakure. She means no harm. She's a medic and she's here to help Takeru-kun."

At the elderly woman's words, another woman, much older than me, but younger than Michiko-san, spoke up. "You can help my son?"

The desperation was clear in her voice, and I could see sparks of hope start to brighten her previously empty looking eyes. Oh man, just how bad was this guy's situation? She looked like she was clinging to her sanity by threads. Was I even going to be able to _do_ anything? Between medical ninjutsu and my waterbending I can usually manage most injuries pretty well, but even I have my limits. I can't heal _everything_. Just what in the world have you gotten yourself into Sumiko?

"I'll do what I can. I've been healing all sorts of injuries since I was six. Now, please, if someone could lead me to the patient," I said with as much professionalism as I could muster. I am representing not only my team, but Kakashi and Konoha as well. Whatever impression they got from me was likely to be what they thought other Konoha ninja would be like, and what kind of village Konohagakure was. I have to make the best impression I possibly can.

I was lead to a small bedroom not too far from the entrance. In the small bed, almost completely covered in bandages, lay a boy who couldn't be more than a few years older than me. Fifteen or sixteen at most. I walked up to the bed and was about to run a diagnostic jutsu on him to assess the damage, when I realized that I could still feel the presence of the other occupants of the dwelling close behind me.

"If you all could return to the other room and wait there please. Of course, his parents may stay if they wish, but it would be best if everyone else were to wait in the other room," I said, not turning from my patient. Ideally, I would have the parents exit the room as well, but I had a feeling these people weren't going to leave a foreign ninja alone with their kin, no matter my intentions.

Slowly, I heard several sets of footsteps walk away from the doorway and the door shut close, leaving me in the room with the patient and two other people who I presume are the patient's parents. As soon as I heard everyone settle themselves back in the other room, I took a deep breath and began to focus. Okay, you can do this Sumiko. I am in no way an actual certified medical-nin, but I know I'm the closest thing to it right now. Which meant that I have to try to help as best as I can manage. I flared my chakra until it became that familiar light green and began to run a diagnostic jutsu on the teen.

"What is it that you're doing?" the father asked sharply.

I continued my jutsu and responded calmly, "It's called a diagnostic jutsu. It works like a scan that allows me to thoroughly assess injuries, both internal and external." As I finished speaking, I also completed my jutsu. As I let my chakra ease away, I let out a sigh of relief. No signs of heavy bleeding and no signs of infection.

"What was that sigh for? Is something wrong? What's wrong with my boy?" the mother asked frantically, moving to come closer to me, but the father held her back.

I frowned as the mother continued to ask all sorts of questions, talking a mile a minute.. This is why I dislike having to deal with people who aren't used to the life of a ninja or any other type of combatant. They're always so frantic and full of questions on every move a healer made. I mean, I get that they're worried about their loved ones. I'd be glad to answer any questions if only they stopped to take the time to breathe and let me answer. People who were used to ninja were less likely to show their distress so openly. They'd keep an eye on the medic if they were foreign, but they wouldn't be so visibly frenzied.

"No, it's good news actually," I assured the woman once she finally took a moment to breathe. "He has no internal injuries, and an infection hasn't set in either which is really good," I explained as I began to unwrap his dirty bandages. Judging by the state of these bandages, it was a miracle in itself that infection hadn't set in in some of these still open wounds not to mention that he didn't have any internal injuries either. I may have been able to get to those injuries with my waterbending, but like I mentioned earlier, it may have been more than I could heal. I wouldn't have been able to heal any infections at all. Only antibiotics could do that, and I don't have access to those. I doubt this village does either. This guy was really lucky.

"Your son has three bruised ribs, one of which is also broken. He also has a fractured wrist, a sprained ankle, a shallow stab wound just beneath his clavicle on his left side, and multiple abrasions to various parts of his body. All of these I should be able to take care of. Your son is very lucky," I told them. Really though, this guy must have a luck god on his side. He not only avoided infection and internal bleeding, but he avoided death too. If the weapon that caused his stab wound had hit any deeper or any further down, there wouldn't be a patient for me to heal right now. He'd be dead, I thought as I searched through my various pouches and pulled out some disinfectant, cotton swabs and fresh bandages.

I began to clean off the wounds on his arms before healing his injuries with medical ninjutsu. I paid special attention to the boy's wrist. I didn't have the supplies needed to make a proper cast, but I was able to fashion a splint for him. I'd have to make something similar for that ankle of his too, but I'll worry about that later. I've really got to work on those ribs of his.

I worked on healing his ribs for a while. Broken bones were tougher to fix than cuts and bruises. Even a fractured bone took less energy and concentration than a fully broken bone. As time continued to pass, I could feel myself start to tireout. I'm not used to spending this much chakra in such a short amount of time. I really didn't want to reveal my bending abilities, but I was running out of options. I said I would try my best, and stopping now wouldn't have fulfilled that promise.

I drew some water out of my pouch and began to use my waterbending to heal the rest of his torso. They healed up nicely so I didn't need to rebandage that part of his body.

Next, I moved onto his head. I carefully unwrapped the bandages from around his head and began to clean away any dry blood from his head and face. Man, I knew these people probably had little to no medical training, but wasn't it common sense to at least clean blood off?

After I had finished cleaning off the blood, I once again used my bending to heal the wounds on the boy's head. It was then when the boy began to regain consciousness. Slowly, his eyes fluttered open and he looked straight at me with the prettiest green eyes I had ever seen.

"A-are you an angel?" he asked in a raspy voice. I couldn't stop the heat from rising to my face. He thought I was an angel?

"Takeru!" his mother cried out and ran up to the bed to hug her son. His father stood by his wife's side, staring down at his son with teary eyes. I stepped back to allow the family to have their moment.

"Mom? Dad? What's going on? I thought for sure they were going to kill me," the boy rasped out and then began to cough. Quickly, I pulled my drinking water canteen off my belt and handed it to him.

"Drink. Slowly," I told him, stepping back once more. He nodded through his coughing fit and then took a drink of water. As he drank, his father spoke.

"That damned Gato and his thugs! If only we could drive him out. Him and all his slimy thugs. He's ruined all of our lives. I bet he keeps all the food and imports in that damned warehouse on the docks that our family built. He keeps everything to himself and leaves us with nothing!" the older man roared.

My interest was peaked at this information. Gato kept a warehouse at the docks around here? This could prove useful.

I was drawn out of my thoughts when I heard a yelp of pain. The boy had tried to stand up and was now lying in a heap on the ground. I swiftly rushed over and helped him up.

"I wouldn't recommend standing just yet. I haven't gotten around to healing your legs yet, and you've got a sprained ankle. Even then, you'll be weak, so you're going to have to take it easy and take the rest for the next couple of weeks," I explained to him. A shinobi would have been okay within a couple of days or so, but he was a civilian and therefore needed more time.

"Who are you?" the boy asked me.

"Oh! Sweetheart, this is..." the mother trailed off. "Ah, it seems we never asked for your name kunoichi-san," she said sheepishly.

I smiled. "No worries. My name is Sumiko. I am a ninja from Konoha who was asked to treat your injuries by your grandmother, Michiko-san," I introduced myself, purposely leaving out the Hatake name just incase this was some sort of trap or ruse to get information.

"I thank you for your help, Sumiko-san. I am Takeru Hisakawa. I know you probably didn't come all this way to the Land of Waves just to patch me up," Takeru laughed weakly.

I bowed my head. "You are most welcome Hisakawa-san. While it is true that it is not my stated mission to act as a medic for civilians, I personally believe that if I am able to help, then I should."

There was an awkward silence as the Hisakawa boy stared at me with a weird smile on his face. I cleared my throat and spoke again. "If you don't mind, I would like to finish healing you up," I told Takeru.

"Oh, of course. Forgive me for staring, Sumiko-san."

I didn't respond to him as I began to heal up the remaining injuries on his legs. Soon, I was finally finished.

"Now, you'll still feel sore for a while, and I recommend you take it easy for the next two weeks. I don't have the necessary supplies to make a cast for your wrist, but I was able to make a splint. I would have made one for your ankle as well, but it wasn't as bad as I originally thought. Still, _don't_ aggravate any of your injuries. Also, keep pressure away from your ribs for a while as well. You had three bruised ribs, one of which was completely broken. I managed to patch you up and heal the break, but it is still going to be sore. So, rest for the next two weeks got it?"

Takeru nodded. "I understand. Thank you, Sumiko-san," he said with that weird smile on his face once more.

I turned to Takeru's parents, "Well, if that is all, I believe I'll be on my way," I said and bowed respectfully before moving to exit the room. I was halfway out the door when Takeru called out.

"W-wait! Sumiko-san, will I see you again?" He asked with a pleading look in his eyes. What? What the heck is that look about?

"More than likely not. As soon as my mission is complete, my team and I will be returning home," I said.

"Oh, I see. Well, perhaps good fortune may shine upon me yet, and I will somehow find a way to see you once more," he said with this really weird sparkle in his green eyes. I didn't like it. He may have really pretty eyes, but he was being really weird. Feeling uncomfortable under his gaze, I quickly said my goodbyes and made to escape.

I walked the few feet back to the living room to be met with a bombardment of questions from worried relatives. They were all crowding around me and asking so many questions at rapid speeds all at once that I had no idea where to begin.

"All of you be quiet! Quit hovering like vultures! Give the girl some room," old lady Michiko demanded.

The rest of the family members moved away from me and settled back into their places around the room. I sent a silent thanks to the old woman but she just waved it away. "How is my grandson, kunoichi-san?"

"Oh! Please, my name is Sumiko, Michiko-san. Forgive me for not introducing myself," I said quickly before answering her question. "He is well and awake. He'll be sore for a while and will have to rest for the next couple of weeks, but other than that, he is just fine," I said with a smile.

"Thank you, Sumiko-san," she said and then began to pull out something from the sleeve of her kimono.

When I saw that the object was a scroll of some sort I began to protest. "Oh, no, Michiko-san. No payment is necessary. I was happy to help," I said with a nervous smile. I really hoped she would listen to me and not give me anything. These people already had so little, I'd feel terrible for taking something from them when I knew I would have helped these people, or anyone in this village, regardless if they had something to pay me with in return.

But the old lady wouldn't listen. "I won't hear of it. You did our family a great service. I must repay you somehow, and I believe I have just the thing for a young kunoichi just as yourself. Take this," the old lady thrust the dust covered scroll out in front of me.

Slowly, I took the scroll from her and wiped off some of the dust to see the character 'Bear' written on it. Under that, there was a seal. I couldn't believe it! This was- just how did she- and this was- _what?!_

"Ah, I see you know what this is then," Michiko-san said with a chuckle.

I stared at her with wide eyes. "Michiko-san, I cannot possibly accept this! This is a summoning scroll! Surely you would rather keep such a thing within your family?"

Why would she offer me a summoning scroll? These were difficult to come by. Summoning scrolls were usually kept within families, like how the Hatake clan were the primary users of the Dog scroll or the Saurtobi with the Monkeys, or passed down between master and student. The fact that Michiko-san had this scroll meant that there was shinobi blood somewhere in her family tree, but going by the look of this scroll, it must have been generations ago. This was truly a handsome gift.

"Nonsense! This scroll belonged to my grandmother, and even then it was her great-grandfather to use it last. You seem like a nice young girl, and I'm sure that you as a kunoichi will put this to good use. None in my family will ever become ninja, so please, do an old woman a favor and take this." she finished gently.

I stared down at the scroll in my hands and then looked back to Michiko-san. "Thank you, Michiko-san. I will treasure this always," I said as I bowed deeply in respect.

"Thank _you_ , Sumiko-san. I hate to think what would have happened to my poor grandson if it hadn't been for you. Now, you've been here quite a while, and it's beginning to get late. I'm sure your team is wondering where you are," she told me.

I knew she was right. It had taken a few hours to get all of Takeru's injuries all healed up. Those broken, bruised, and fractured bones of his had taken quite a while to fix, and now it was almost dinner time. I told Sakura I would be back by then, and knowing her, she was probably beginning to worry.

It hit me then, that when I got back, there was a very good chance that I was going to be in quite a bit of trouble with Kakashi. I just knew that he was going to be none too pleased that I had gone off in unfamiliar territory on my own. Suddenly, heading back to Tazuna's didn't sound too great.

I said my goodbyes to Michiko-san and headed out the door. I had just rounded the corner when Kakashi appeared in front of me. His mask and headband may cover most of his face, but it didn't stop the unhappy and disappointed expression from shining through.

Oh, man. Am I ever in trouble.

I stood there, facing Kakashi while tightly clutching the scroll in my left hand. I knew from the moment I had agreed to help, that I would probably get into trouble with Kakashi. I went off on my own with unfamiliar people in unfamiliar territory without even running it by him first. I _knew_ what I had done wrong, but still, I couldn't stand the look of disappointment on his face.

My gaze immediately dropped to the ground. "I-I'm so-"

"Stop right there," he said. "You and Sakura had orders to stay with Tazuna and protect him. You left the client and went off on your own in foreign territory when we have already been attacked by enemy ninja _twice_. I could have you written up for insubordination."

His voice was cold and devoid of any emotion which shook me to the core. Kakashi has never spoken to me like this before. I don't know how to respond, if I even _should_ respond.

"Do you know how badly this could have ended? What if had been a trap? What if you had been captured? Do you have any idea what could have happened to you? Enemies don't care if you're young, a medic, or a girl. I may not have been able to get you back. Not in this condition."

His words hit me hard, and I realized just how far south this could have gone. It really _could_ have been a trap. I don't have the greatest chakra sense and more than likely wouldn't have been able to tell if ninja had been there if they were trying to hide their chakra signature. They would know I was part of the protection detail for Tazuna with a quick look at my headband. Kakashi would have tried to come after me, but he was still weak. I could feel a lump in my throat tighten as I fought to keep the tears back.

"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't think th-that - I just w-wanted to help," I cried. I felt a hand on my head ruffle my hair. I opened my eyes to see Kakashi crouched in front of me with his hand on my head.

"I know you were only trying to help, but I need you to understand the repercussions of not thinking things through," he said softly.

I took a deep breath and tried to stop my tears. Slowly, I was able to calm myself down and sound at least sort of normal and not like I had just been sobbing myself raw.

"I'm sorry. I won't do something as reckless as that again," I apologized.

He ruffled my hair again. "Good. Now that that's been taken care of, let's talk about how you did. You did well. You handled yourself well in front of the villagers and managed to sucessfully heal the boy."

"You were watching?!" I asked in astonishment. I hadn't even felt the familiar crackle of Kakashi's chakra anywhere near me.

"Maa, you really couldn't tell? We'll need to work on that awareness of yours," Kakashi said as he stood back up again. "Let's head back and you can tell me more about your experience with those villagers," he said and then started walking back to Tazuna's house.

I told him everything. Including the information I had heard from the boy's father and about the summoning scroll I still had clutched in my hands. Kakashi raised one visible eyebrow at this so I quickly held out the scroll to him.

"I was going to ask you about it before I actually decided what I was going to do with it," I told him.

Kakashi picked up the scroll and inspected it. "This is a summoning scroll alright. Bears, huh? I don't think I've ever heard of anyone summoning bears. Are you going to sign it?"

I shrugged my shoulders in response. "Not sure. I'll think about it. Not like I can sign in right now if I wanted to anyway. Summoning takes up a lot of chakra. Chakra I currently do not have," I meant this in both the sense that i was tired from using medical jutsu all day, and also that I was a twelve year old genin who just didn't quite yet have the chakra reserves to successfully use a summoning jutsu and still be able to walk.

"Smart girl. We'll be working on that too then, if you want to sign the scroll anytime soon. I supposed Bears suit you more than Dogs though, huh?"

I looked up to Kakashi in shock. "You would have let me sign the Dog scroll?"

I wasn't kidding when I said shinobi guarded their summonings closely. Even if someone was the last of their clan, some shinobi would rather the scroll become lost with them, rather than give it to an outsider. There was a reason only so many ninja were able to summon. Sure, there was the reverse summon technique, where one gets drawn into the summoning realm of the creature that would best suit them, but that was dangerous and held only about a fifty percent survival rate.

"Of course, you're my student _and_ you're a Hatake, imouto," he said with a squinty eye which I've come to recognize as a sign that he was smiling under his mask. "Of course I wasn't thinking for you to sign it until you got a little more experience, but it's a moot point now isn't it?"

I squeezed Kakashi into a tight hug. I know Kakashi let me use the Hatake name and let me call him Kakashi-nii, but still I've always had lingering thoughts in the back of my mind of Kakashi only putting up with me because he had to. Now though, those fears had been laid to rest. He called me a Hatake, he called me his _sister_. He called me _family_.

"You're the best, Kakashi-nii."

* * *

Alright. There's chapter 10. I've just finished the first week of my last year of Uni, so please be patient with me. Thanks for reading. If you're interested in reading any of my other works I have a few others for y'all to check out. Thanks again. -S.F.E.

Also, as a Texan, I'd just like to say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Houston, Rockport, Fulton, Port Aransas, and all the others who have been affected by Hurricane Harvey. To my fellow Texans, I hope that you and your families are okay. I love y'all!


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